SB Nation - Mike Martin

Malicious Internet Interrogation With Maize-n-Brew

BSD — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:00:28 -0000

It's Michigan week, so you know what that means. Five days of listening to talk about "streaks" and "WE PWN PENN STATE". As always, we reached out to a Michigan blogger to come sit on the BSD hotseat, and this week our Huckleberry is Dave from Maize-n-Brew. Enjoy, and go check out Maize-n-Brew where I'll answer some questions for Dave later on.

Things started out hot for Rich's boys with that win over Notre Dame. But now they're 1-2 and almost 0-3 in conference play. How has Michigan's season compared to your expectations so far?

Not to toot my own horn too loudly, but the team is exactly where I saw it being. 5-2 heading into the Penn State game. I think the biggest challenge for Michigan fans this season hasn't been getting on the bandwagon, it's been tempering expectations. All of a sudden we've got this score-o-matic offense, and we don't know what to do with ourselves. The offense has been so good we've been willing to say "we'll outscore [the other team]" in every game, totally forgetting that our defense is just as bad as we feared it'd be going into the season. Overall, I think the coaching has been excellent. GERG has fashioned a mediocre defense out of three players (Brandon Graham, Donovan Warren, and Mike Martin), duck tape, and styrofoam. Honestly, I thought the D would be much, much worse than it's performed. Offensively, we're light years ahead of last year, but still in that learning phase. There are still a lot of mistakes on offense and the passing game went backwards the last two games. The offense is better than I thought it'd be, but the team itself is right where I predicted.

Against Iowa, Rodriguez benched Tate Forcier in favor of Denard Robinson and it looked like Forcier wasn't too happy about it. Last week against Delaware State Forcier only played one series. Is there a quarterback controversy brewing?

Mike, when did you start writing for the Detroit Free Press? There is no controversy. Forcier is the starter and got benched at the end of the Iowa game because he was awful. I completely disagree with everyone who bitched and moaned that Forcier should've been back in the game for the last series against Iowa. No. He shouldn't have. Tate was banged up. He was clearly rattled. He had a mild concussion. He was making very, very bad decisions and should've left that game with at least three picks. He needed to be benched at that point. But here's the thing...

He's a freshman. They make mistakes. Look at Tebow, McCoy, Bradford, Henne, Young, or Troy Smith. I'm not comparing Tate to these guys, but I'm naming them to prove a point. As freshmen these uber-quarterbacks made game-costing mistakes. Why? Becuase they're freshmen. Matt Barkley's going to gack one up shortly too. A benching is part of the learning curve and I expect Tate to play much better at home than under the lights at Kinnick. Kinnick does strange things to visiting quarterbacks.. cough... Daryll Clark.... cough.... So, there's really nothing to read into Tate sitting. He needed a week to rest his shoulder. Frankly, Robinson needed the reps because if Tate goes down, Denard's gotta go in. Unless Robinson suddenly, and unexpectedly, becomes a polished passer he's going to be used in a back-up and change of pace role. Tate is the unquestioned starter.

Last year's game between these teams introduced MINOR RAGE into our vocabulary. But Brandon Minor has been banged up off and on this year. Is he healthy for this game? And are there any other injuries of note?

Minor should start this game and is, by all accounts, as healthy as he's been since fall camp started. Sitting the last few games and limited practice has allowed his injured ankle to heal (at least Michigan fans hope so). That's good news for us, bad for you. Against Iowa, Minor had plenty of power and steamrolled several Hawkeye defenders en route to an excellent, yet limited game. As with all ankle injuries, you're fine until you have to make a cut. That was the big difference two weeks ago, he couldn't really do that. Two more weeks to heal? I think he'll be cutting fine and will be one of the keys to the game. Likewise, Carlos Brown should be back in the backfield along side Minor. Brown suffered a concussion in practice two weeks ago and should be fine for Saturday's game. Another huge return will be Center David Molk, who has been ouot since the Indiana game after suffering a broken foot against EMU. Molk is the heart and soul of our offensive line, so if he's able to play, it'll be a huge boost for the team. The downside is he's had a week to practice, so he might not be at 100%. On the defensive side of the ball, Michigan will again be without sophomore cornerback Boubacar Cissoko who has been suspended indefinitely for various violations of team rules (including academics). Rodrgiuez has said that the team is monitoring Cissoko, and it is up to him whether he's going to put in the work to get back on the field.

That Michigan defense...I dunno, man. They made Jimmy Clausen look like a Heisman contender. And Indiana rushed for almost 200 yards. Is it Greg Robinson and the coaching scheme? Is it an issue of talent level? Is it injuries? What does Michigan have to do to get better?

It's a talent issue. Michigan is simply barren at linebacker and empty in the secondary after Warren. Personally, as stated previously, I think GERG has done an excellent job with this group. Look at the defensive line. I thought we were toast at DT after Mike Martin, and GERG has turned Greg Banks and Renaldo Sagesse into prominent contributors. Look at Stevie Brown, a year removed from being the player most likely to allow a 70 yard touchdown, he's our best linebacker and should at least get consideration for All Big Ten Honorable mention. Michigan's defense plays very hard and is very young, but the youth in the secondary and the constant stream of mistakes out of veterans Obi Ezeh and Jonas Mouton (who really, really should be better than he's playing and I can't figure out why he isn't) at linebacker are consistenly breaking down on third and long. Hence, the issues on D. If you're looking for an achilles, it's linebackers or safeties covering Tight Ends. Iowa smoked us on that. Coverage on the play fake or the TE going into the flats has been terrible, and it's just a reaction thing. The players have to identify that better and simply haven't. Better players over the next few years will fix that, but it's something Michigan fans just have to deal with this season and next.

I'm assuming you've watched a Penn State game or two this year. Where do you think the Wolverines can exploit them?

You know, I'm not really sure on this one. I feel the Penn State secondary isn't quite up to snuff and the DE's are a tad weaker than they've been in recent years. Plus, if Sean Lee's out this week, bonus. In the running game I think Michigan has to attack the edges quickly and someone has to get out on Bowman immediately. Michigan possesses a quick, strong and athletic offensive line, so I think they can attack the edges with the read option. Up the gut? Not so much. I was very impressed by PSU's Defensive Tackles. In the passing game, I see a lot of Tight End Kevin Koger both as a viable pass option and as a decoy. Of the linebacking group, I'm not sure who will be covering him. But with Koger in the pattern or as a decoy/blocker it means one less linebacker at the edge to deal with. I think Koger is probably the #2 or #3 TE in the conference pass catching and blocking, so he'll play a big role. Next, look for Stonum and Hemingway to get deep on Penn State's corners and safeties. That'll open things up in the middle and may, by themselves, be open for some deep bombs.

I'm sure you're wondering why I haven't said "w00t we'llz 0wnz0rz da PSU Offensive Line!" Well, our pass rush hasn't been great outside of Brandon Graham and teams have been running very, very well against us. So, I think that match up is a push.

On the flip side, what scares you to death about this Penn State team?

The Linebackers, the Defensive Tackles and Evan Royster. Really. I've never been a big fan of Daryll Clark's. Mostly because he's shown a propensity for gacking up games against good competition. Interceptions. Fumbles. Bad reads. But Royster scares the shit out of me. On defense, Michigan's running game depends on neutralizing the center of the Defensive front and getting to the backers. I just don't see that happening consistently against Bowman and company. We'll have some great gainers, but I'll be surprised if Michigan can do it consistently.

Care to make a prediction? The Nittany Lions of BSD could use some red meat.

mmmmm..... red meat..... That makes me hungry. Think I'll order a cheese steak from Mr. Spots with chili cheese fries. mmmmmm..... What were we talking about? Oh yeah. Predictions. Back in May I predicted this one to be a Penn State victory. On paper, it should be. But Michigan's glorified scrimage against Delaware State gave the Wolverines an extra week of practice and allowed their starters to get healthy. Something Michigan was not able to do in previous years. I still hate the concept of a D1-AA opponent anywhere on the schedule, but the timing of the "bye" is really beneficial to Michigan this year. I think Michigan wins this in a close game. I could be wrong, probably am, but a year removed from 3-9 and sitting at 5-2, I'm playing with house money.

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.

Matchup of the Week: Michigan State Offense v. Michigan Defense

grahamfiller10 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:52:37 -0000

Surprisingly, 60% of you picked Michigan to beat Michigan State this week. I figured three factors would push many onto the Spartan bandwagon -

Michigan showed it's youth and inexperience last Saturday, almost losing to Indiana at home.
The Spartans, picked to finish third in the conference, are sure to rebound and what better time to do it than at home in the "Super Bowl" for the state of Michigan?
The Wolverine defense is a sieve, one that features low grade secondary and linebacker play. The MSU offense leads the conference in total yards and passing yards per game, thanks to the efforts of Kirk Cousins and some talented wide receivers. You do the math.

So I wanted to highlight what I see as the most important matchup come Saturday: Michigan's various formations against the effective passing attack of Mark Dantonio's Spartans.

My friend threw out a theory of his the other day and it's worth some discussion. He believes that offenses have the potential to improve more throughout the season, while defenses are more "you get what you see." His theory centers around the fact that offenses revolve around timing routes and precise reads, while defenses are simply athletes reacting as quickly as possible to the opposing squads attack. If the offense is bad early in the season, it can improve as the timing becomes more precise. If the defense is bad, that probably means you don't have the athletes or the training. In his mind, game time and practice repetitions help a quarterback more than, let's say, defensive backs who see the same thing each week.

My friend is a Michigan fan and connected this theory to Saturday's game, pessimistically believing that Michigan is somewhat plateaued on the defensive side of the ball, while the Spartans and young Cousins can only improve.

Obviously broad theories hold little weight, but it's worth discussion.

Michigan State's Ace Formation

Michigan State's Basic Shotgun Formation

Really nothing groundbreaking here, except for my exceptionally bad Microsoft Paint work. Cousins (#8) throws effectively from both under center or from the shotgun, but the Spartans throw more from shotgun. The favorite routes are: outs and comebacks to Blair White(#25), sit downs and deep middles to Dell (#2), and crossing routes to Cunnningham (#3) and Keshawn Martin. Cousins, who I named the second best quarterback in the Big Ten, throws a great football but struggles when teams drop linebackers into coverage.

The Spartans are bound to run early to test the shaky Michigan defense, with Caulton Ray, Larry Caper, and Glenn Winston getting the bulk of the carries. During film study this week, the Wolverines will quickly learn these two basic points about the MSU run game:

The Spartans cannot run from the shotgun one back set. They are getting no push from the front 5 and the backs aren't finding holes without a fullback to guide.
Glenn Winston is a pounder. If he gets past the LOS, his size and angry running style gets him extra yards. He's got the same body as O.J. Simpson (6'1'', 215), but a shorter rap sheet. But he won't be in to block on third down and he won't run from shotgun.

Michigan Defensive Formations and Personnel

On the MGo defensive UFR for this week, Brian noted that Michigan ran almost every combination of defense formation possible...3-4, 4-4. 4-3, 3-3-5. Since I don't have the time to draw up each of those, here is what we've learned about the Michigan defense after four weeks of undefeated play.

Michigan has one very good corner, Donovan Warren, and two very bad corners, JT Floyd and Boubacar Cissoko. Cissoko was the guy torched by Jimmy Clausen and Michael Floyd for 540 yards and 12 touchdowns. After getting lit up by Indiana, Booby got benched for Floyd, a hard working but slow freshman. Floyd and Cissoko have been allowing the short 5-8 yard passes all year, which is a bad sign because Michigan State runs these routes extremely well.

The Wolverine D-Line has steadily improved. Teams absolutely must double team DE Brandon Graham, while DT Mike Martin has been solid since the Notre Dame game.

The LB corps has not shown any chutzpah in slowing opposing offenses. Notre Dame and Indiana put up almost 500 yards each against Michigan as the linebackers took bad tackling angles and got blocked out of plays constantly.

Well, What The Hell Is Going To Happen Saturday?

In a perfect world, Michigan would follow the path shown by the Wisconsin D, who pressed the Spartan receivers and dropped linebackers into a deeper zone coverage. This flustered Cousins early and led to interceptions. The only reason the Badgers were able to do this was because they didn't fear the MSU run game. The linebackers could afford to eyeball the running back and then waltz backwards into the secondary.

On a realistic note, Greg Robinson will probably continue his "bend but don't break" defense (H/T MaizeandBrew) to protect Floyd/Cissy from giving up big plays to Dell, Cunningham, and Martin. Also, if the Wolverine LB's are continuously matched up with with crossing wide receivers, bad things will probably befall Robinson and co.

If the run game and the underneath routes are bottled up, it's going to be a happy day in Ann Arbor. If Cousins gets time to hit White and Dell over and over, the Harrison Roadhouse will be rocking. Either way, it'll be a joy to watch the chess match between an excellent sophomore QB and Greg Robinson.

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

Maize n Brew Dave — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:30:16 -0000

Time for the second part of our Michigan Indiana Unit by Unit breakdown. Each week we 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, the general AP recap is here, and the Unit by Unit Breakdown of the Offense 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 Defense

He really could be yelling anything. Photo via John T. Greilick Detroit News.com

When anyone gives up 467 yards to Indiana, they should be concerned. When it's a young Michigan team who really needs its Defense to step up and keep a team below 30 points a game, it could be cause for alarm. However, with six trips inside the red zone, Indiana came away with 4 field goals and just one touchdown. On one hand, two of those field goals came on drives that totaled 34 yards. On the other, Indiana maintained drives of 80, 67, 52, and 70 yards and produced two touchdowns and a pair of field goals. Oh. And the defense gave up an 85 yard touchdown run. It was an odd, odd day. Michigan actually looked truly competent for most of the day, but made some horrible mistakes that cost them yardage at inopportune times. Deficiencies in the Secondary and at Linebacker continue to be exposed while the Defensive Line continues to grow and gain strength and depth. On second glance, the game wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, but it still wasn't good. Hopefully this will help to answer some of your questions and maybe allow you to throw out the brick you've stashed by the TV before you chuck it through the tube this Saturday by offering some reassurance that things might actually be okay in the long run

The Defensive Line

via John T. Greilick Detroit News.com

Hands down the best unit on the defense against Indiana. It wasn't even close. Despite getting just a single sack, I thought the line had one of it's stronger games. I was impressed to see the diversity of names up at the line. Brandon Graham, Ryan Van Bergen, Mike Martin, and Craig Roh all started, but Greg Banks, Renaldo Sagesse, and Brandon Herron all saw playing time. Where the defensive line depth was a serious cause for concern going into the season, a quarter of the way through, it's turning out to be one of our deepest units. I can't believe I'm typing that either. What Robinson has done with this unit borders on amazing. They're not world beaters yet, but they're not the gaping hole feared we might find. In fact, they're actually pretty good.

Brandon Graham was in Ben Chappell's face all day long. Usually double teamed, Graham would shed one or both of the blockers to either disrupt the play or make the tackle at or behind the line of scrimmage. He planted Chappell a milisecond after the QB released the ball on several occasions and was generally stout in the running game. There were, however, times that Indiana used his over aggressiveness to their advantage, and ran behind him. Even so, it's hard to find fault in his game. Graham racked up 6 tackles on the day and 1.5 of them of loss, a good number for a safety, let alone a lineman. All of that despite being blatantly held in every game so far. Regardless, he's still getting pressure. When his sacks start to come, they're going to come in bunches.

On the interior, it was a quiet day. Mike Martin, Greg Banks and Renaldo Sagesse all played well, with Martin leading the way. Martin was stout all day, and managed to shed the double teams for the occasional penetration into the backfield. But for the most part, with Indiana running to the corners or throwing on three step drops, his presence was largely in support. I was surprised to see Banks play as much as he has and be as effective in the middle as he has. Sagesse was only in for a handful of downs and didn't do anything to make me notice him. I point this out because Indiana spent the majority of their day running directly behind their left tackle and guard. They didn't seem afraid to run directly at Graham, though they did double him when they went his direction. The point is they avoided Martin like the plague.

(more after the Jump.......)

Ryan Van Bergen on the other hand, well, he had an interesting day. He was tipping passes, dropping into coverage, stuffing the run, missing a crucial assignment (or so he says), then singlehandedly destroying an Indiana drive. RVB is really a jack of all trades for Greg Robinson and his staff. They dropped him into coverage on the goal line successfully. They send him after the QB and he gets a sack at two PBUs. They tell him to stack the line, he ends up with six tackles. RVB was active most of the game, but seemed to disappear in terms of results for long stretches. Then he got mad. He got us the ball.

Outside, Craig Roh (mostly) and Brandon Herron (some) had an okay day. Roh continues to use his speed to get into the opposing backfield, but sometimes overruns or over pursues a tad. In my notes I only mention Roh and Herron twice, however, I know that Roh dropped off into coverage relatively well, and Herron made some nice stops in run support.

Overall, it was a good day from the line, but I am concerned about some of the cavernous holes that opened up on the right side of the defensive front. Indiana cleared a couple of pretty big holes for their backs to run through, so I'm sure there's work to be done. Of course, those holes are supposed to be filled by linebackers so...

The Linebackers

via David Guralnick Detroit News.com

Yeah. Where do I go with this one? Let's be honest, anyone not named Stevie Brown has been a little bit (sometimes a lot) of a disappointment. Over the last four weeks the play of the linebackers has broken down into a couple of steady themes. Ezeh and Mouton are not good in pass coverage. Brown is still a little too small for the position. Ezeh doesn't attack the ball carrier and lets the action come to him. Mouton has horrible angles in pursuit and attack. Apply these tenants to any game this season. They'll explain the linebacker play perfectly.

If there's a caveat, it's this: Stevie Brown never should've been a safety. He should've been a linebacker from day one. Since the first game of the season I think it's safe to say the Brown has been Michigan's best linebacker. He's excellent in pass coverage (never in a million, billion years did I ever think I'd say that). He's aggressive at the point of attack and drives into the guy he's tackling. He's wrapping up his tackles and driving MFers to the dirt. He's fast sideline to sideline. Finally, he's brought some stability to a unit that otherwise would probably be an unmitigated disaster without him. I'll give Robinson credit, Brown's emergence as our best linebacker is the single most impressive thing he's done with any one player on this defense. I thought Stevie was excellent on Saturday and shed blockers well and got after the QB and running backs as well as any Michigan linebacker since David Harris' departure.

Jonas Mouton's day was a little more difficult to figure out. It seems he alternates great plays with bad ones from time to time, but has stretches of good play that vary as the game goes on. I'm not an authority on schemes and assignments, so I can only comment on what I see from the plays that are made, but more often than not Mouton is in the right place to make a play. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. Mouton's biggest weakness right now seems to be his angles. Rewatching the game, when Mouton is pursuing at an angle or covering in one, he's usually off target. His pass defense also seems shaky. In zone and man, Mouton didn't look good, which is weird to say about a guy who used to be a safety. Both Mouton and Ezeh had an awful time adjusting to simple crossing routes by Indiana's big n' slow receivers and tight ends. On the other hand, Mouton was fairly solid in run support. When he can run straight line at someone, oh baby. Mouton made several good run support tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage. Looking at his 11 tackles (5 solo, 6 assists), I was surprised he only had .5 tackles for loss. He also looked great applying pressure on the blitz. Still, his angles on the option looks were atrocious and I tagged him for mistakes on both early Indiana touchdowns. Then on one of Indiana's FG drvies in the redzone he makes up for it by reading the play properly and tagging the QB. It was a mixed bag, but this was one of his better games this season. He's not great, or really even good, right not. He's passable with the potential to be good. I'm not going to go so far as to label his season a flop or a regression, or anything like that. I just don't think he was that good last season, and is still playing like a guy that's learning his position. He showed some good things on Saturday. He's getting away from arm tackles and is made some authoritative stops. But he's got to be better in pass coverage and in attack for this defense to get better.

As for Ezeh, he wasn't good against Indiana. The boxscore has him at ten tackles, but I think that's generous. Very generous. As stated above and in previous Unit by Unit wrap ups, Ezeh has a nasty habit of letting contact come to him. As a result, when he makes a solo tackle the RB, QB, TE or WR drags him for another 3 yards. This is not a good thing. Every time I mentioned Ezeh in my notes it was not for a good reason. On one of the redzone touchdowns and the 85 yard run, I noted that Ezeh allowed himself to get sealed off by the linemen without much resistance. In both cases he was late reacting to the play. The place where he's most effective is rushing the passer, something he really wasn't able to do as much because Robinson was sending Jordan Kovacs on safety blitzes most of the day to cover up for his lack of coverage speed. Kind of a no win for Ezeh. As a result of Kovacs at the line, Ezeh was back in pass coverage where he's only moderately effective. It appeared he did have a nice breakup, but I'm crediting Brown with ripping out the ball out of the receivers hands. Ezeh got sucked up on too many play action passes and left the middle of the field open on a couple of occasions. When he needed to make a tackle, he whiffed on an arm tackle or got dragged along. Really, it was a rough day. How he got to 10 tackles is beyond me, and maybe the scorer just gave an assist to him because they saw him on the top of a bunch of gang tackles. But I thought he was the least fundamentally sound of the group.

The Secondary

Donovan Warren = Awesome.

The Rest = Meh

Warren was terrific in coverage and run support all game. His only mistake was one blown tackle. I think he more than made up for that. With regard to the interception, when first saw the play, I was positive they were going to overturn it. When it was upheld, I thought Indiana got hosed. I've since loosened on that conviction. None of the replays are conclusive, and the Big Ten Network explained in detail that possession between receiver and DB isn't a reviewable issue. Also, this photo from UMGoBlog.com made me change my mind on the issue.

Warren's got the ball and possession. Blecher missed it and is reaching back. As an added bonus, there was a referee in centerfield, less than five yards away who saw the whole thing right in front of his eyes. Maybe this couldv'e gone either way, but the ref's location and these photos make me think Warren caught it, and Blecher was trying to rip it out.

Now, other than Warren, it was a shaky day. Boubacar Cissoko got yanked in favor of J.T. Floyd for some horrible coverage and some terrible decisions in goal line defense. Boo Boo inexplicably ran inside on the option TD, freeing up the sideline for Indiana to waltz in. And this was after getting burnt crispy on a "go" route that didn't feature a single move and one that he had a ten yard cushion on at the snap! I think the poor kid's got the "yips" something bad right now after getting torched by Notre Dame and getting a couple of inexplicable flags in the EMU game. He just don't look right out there and it was a good call by the coaching staff to sit him.

In his stead, J.T. Floyd had a rough start but seemed to get better as the game went on. Everyone was yelling about how the ball was uncatchable on his PI call, but face it folks, J.T. had enough jersey in his hands to be a post-game sorority girl. They were calling the obvious hold, which is a hold regardless of where the ball is, whether they called it PI or not. However, after the PI call, I thought he played pretty well. I don't think he's got the wheels to keep up with elite receivers, but after MSU and Regis Benn, there really aren't a lot of top flight receivers on our schedule. He got bowled over on an early tackle, but after that point he just stoned people. The best tackle of the year, so far, was his pile driving of an Indiana receiver short of the first down marker on a third down in the redzone. Floyd should be adequate if Boo Boo continues to struggle and I thought he had a decent game after some early nerves.

At safety, it's clear we need Michael Williams back. Jordan Kovacs was at the line of scrimmage almost the whole day, more to cover up for his lack of speed in coverage than for any other reason. That said, he acquitted himself well in the run game, getting behind the line and making some stops. The one thing he lacks is speed. He's just not that fast and all the Barwis in the world ain't going to change that. He's been great as a walk-on. Honestly, he's been better than our safeties last year. But Michigan's going to have to have speed in the secondary to continue to win and Kovacs doesn't have it.

Frankly, I'm still in shock that Darius Willis outran the entire Michigan secondary for that TD. Yikes. Hopefully it's a bit of a wake up call for the boys in the backfield.

At the other safety position, I thought Troy Woolfolk played fine. He bit on one or two play actions, but otherwise was stout in the passing game. There's not much else I can add to that as he was playing deep the majority of the game to guard against the big play. Something I suspect we'll see from him again this week against Michigan State.

The secondary gave up a lot of yards, but most of them came on underneath routes that the Linebackers have to be better at covering. For the most part, the deep coverage was there and they group forced a number of throw aways by Chappell. It wasn't a great performance by any stretch, but it was enough considering Kovacs was in and Boo Boo seems to be having some problems. Still, the secondary is going to have to play considerably better against MSU for Michigan to have a chance.

The Special Teams

via John T. Greilick Detroit News.com

Surprisingly, the best unit on the field for Michigan was it's kick off return team. Darryl Stonum has been a revelation returning kick-offs and came close to breaking two or three touchdown runs. No matter where he got the ball, he was getting to the 30 or better. Compare that to any point last year. His worst return got to the 26. Two returns went past the 40, six total went to the 30 or better. I mean, damn, son. Give credit where credit is due to the return team. They were excellent.

Punt returns continue to be consistently non-turnoverish. I'll take fair catches any day on bad punts. I'm sure if Mathews thinks he's got something he'll run it back, but right now holding onto the ball and not screwing up are enough for me. It should also be noted that the block team almost got one against Indiana. Michigan's going to get to a punt soon. Mark it.

Speaking of punts, Zoltan Mesko was awesome (per usual). A 48.1 average, two inside the 20 and a 59 yarder? So awesome. His punts were so awesome that only one of seven allowed a return. During the second half his punts pinned IU deep in their own territory and helped shift the field of play in Michigan's favor. All Hail the Space Emperor.

Our coverage teams were fairly good, though Michigan did require a shoestring tackle by Bryan Wright to save a TD on a kickoff. That excluded, everyone was disciplined and played well. Overall a great special teams weekend.

Unit by Unit: Breaking Down Michigan Football's Defense Following Its Win Over Eastern Michigan

Maize n Brew Dave — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:54:55 -0000

We're running a little behind, so it's time to get into the Michigan Eastern Michigan 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. There are the links, so now let's take a good hard look at....

The Defense

Photo via John T. Greilick via Detroit News.com

Michigan had a statistically decent day against the Eagles. They allowed below 300 total yards, giving up 106 passing yards and 179 yards on the ground. Eastern only posted 17 points, and 7 of those were the direct result of a really awful pick thrown by Denard Robinson. Plus, Michigan was without one of its starting linebackers and playing a coach that recruited a number of the players on Michigan's defense. So, it was a good day. Yes?

Yes. It was. While there will always be things you can nitpick (and we will, we will), the Defense seems to be playing alright. If I have a concern, it's that Michigan allowed Eastern to march down the field twice and put up 10 points early in the game. Most of that was on the ground. But the running game was something we always knew this defense would have trouble with. Before we get into the nitpicking, I think it's fair to say that before the season I told you this was what we'd get you would've taken this in a second.

Defensive Line

John T. Greilick via Detroit News.com

Overall a moderate day for the defensive line. At this point it’s clear that Mike Martin and Brandon Graham are the anchors of the group and should both vie for First Team All Big Ten status, if not All American status. Yes, I think Mike Martin (only a sophomore) is that good. The sackless Brandon Graham is only sackless because he’s facing double and triple teams on a regular basis (triple being TE/T and a rub from the TB). Even so he’s been about half a second from recording a number of sacks on the season. The eastern game was no exception. From these two the only concern was Martin tweaking a foot or a leg early in the game, though he did return. Otherwise, it was standard good to excellent performance from the pair, mixed in with the rare loss of discipline on a play here and there.

After Graham and Martin, Craig Roh and Ryan Van Bergen were passable to good on the afternoon. Roh is still a freshman and still prone to overpursuit and running himself out of position. He did show some great concentration on his interception, fending off a lineman at the last possible second to make the grab. Roh is at his best in the pass rush, but is (and will probably continue to) struggling with the run. Van Bergen on the other hand looks totally out of position at DT. He’s simply not built for it. Eastern routinely doubled him, blew him off the line, and opened a big ole running gap. One on one Ryan’s shown some great strength and speed, but when he’s contending with two linemen he’s going to lose that battle 99 times out of 100 and it seems Robinson’s scheme (at this this scheme) requires the DE/DT to be able to hold that ground.

Which brings us to Ronaldo Sagesse. The Wrecker from Québec….er. The French Wrench? Whatever… If there has been one defensive leap forward that the fanbase (and the coaches for that matter) weren’t expecting, it’s been Sagesse’s giant leap forward into being a pretty good DT. He’s clearly athletic, but now that he’s getting some real coaching… damn son. Two TFLs in limited playing time and the ability to handle double teams. You’ve gotta love it. Even Greg Banks, yes he of PS3 fame and inexplicably high player ratings, contributed at DT on Saturday. There’s something going on with the defensive line coaching that I’m really, really excited about. When Will Campbell, all world freshman Will Campbell, is barely scratching the playing time surface in favor of Sagesse and Banks, and those two aren’t just filling space but are contributing; you should be excited down the road.

(More after the jump....)

The Linebackers

It’s been said elsewhere, but the Big Ten’s suspension of Jonas Mouton basically on game day was bush league. I don’t condone what he did. He clearly hit Olsen. But if you’re going to suspend a player do it in a timely manner and let the team adjust for the player’s absence. It’s a small consolation that they did this with Purdue’s Zach Reckman. Still, minor annoyance.

It’s a minor annoyance because Mouton, like Obi Ezeh, has been passable at best at linebacker on the season. While Mouton is a better option than Kevin Leach out there at SLB, the tackle numbers were about the same and the mistakes were pretty similar. I know I’m being harsh, but the linebacking play hasn’t been very good for a bunch of retuning starters at LB. But enough about who didn’t play and back to who did.

Mouton’s fill in, Kevin Leach, wasn’t noticeable during my first watching of the game. His name was called a lot on tackles and he had 7 before the half. My initial impression was that the kid was alright. On a second/third watching, he wasn’t as good as I thought but wasn’t awful by any means. Most of his contact was made well beyond the line of scrimmage and his gap control was off. To his credit, Leach showed some decent wheels and found himself involved in or making a lot of tackles. He’s a little undersized, so perhaps that’s why he’s fast for the position. But his size is a bit of a detriment as Linemen locked onto him and drove him toward Ypsi. Mouton’s been pretty good at shedding blocks this season so there was clearly a dropoff in run support with Leach in. As Eastern really didn’t throw at Leach I can’t really gauge his usefulness in that capacity. Critiques aside, Leach is a friggin walk on. The fact that he was out there, contributing, is awesome. Where you can look at the glass half full regarding J.B. Fitzgerald or our other LB recruits, I look at it as half full. Depth is an issue, but the fact that Michigan can plug in a walk on at a critical position and not get torched as a result is a good thing. Congrats to Leach on a good game.

At MIKE, Ezeh had his usual meh kind of day. He continues to excel rushing the passer, continues to wait for contact on the run rather than engaging the hit, and continues to alternate good run support with bad gap reads. If there’s one thing you can say, Ezeh’s consistent. You know what you’re going to get. Ezeh’s not going to be a dominant middle linebacker at this point. It could happen, but the chances are fairly remote. He’s a good linebacker and I’m content with that. When he tackles, he wraps people up. When he blitzes he makes plays. He’s just not Chris Harris. And I’m cool with that.

Stevie Brown, again, had what I considered a decent day. He made some stops, played good coverage, wrapped up consistently. Brown success at his new position will be judged by how he handles the conference season, but so far he’s easily been the most consistent and arguably best linebacker on the field each game. Against Eastern he was aggressive, good in coverage, and attacked the ball carrier in space. If he was three inches taller and 50 pounds heavier he’d be all world. Right now, though, he’s pretty good and deserves some praise. J.B. Fitzgerald played. That’s about it.

John T. Greilick via Detroit News.com

The Secondary

Considering that the majority of Eastern’s yards came on the ground and they only posted on touchdown through the air, it’s hard to be too critical of the secondary. Boubacar Cissoko bounced back from a rough Notre Dame game to have an excellent game in coverage. Donovan Warren continued to be Donovan Warren, clearly showing that he is arguably the best cover corner in the Big Ten. Troy Woolfolk and Mike Williams were passable in coverage, and despite a mistake in coverage here and there (minor ones people, shading issues rather than "that looks like a run so why is the ball going over my head?" mistakes).

Run support, well, that was another matter. The only player in the group not to make a horrid tackling mistake was Donovan Warren, who spent a good portion of his day making run tackles he should’ve have needed to make. Cissoko froze on an open field tackle on Schmit, whiffed and allowed an additional 15 yards to a slow lanky white boy. It was reminiscent of Coner’s ole! on Stevie Brown in the spring game. Likewise Troy Woolkfolk came up to lay a big hit but forgot about the whole "wrap him up" thing allowing another ten yards. Overall, while the coverage was decent, the tackling in the secondary was very bad against the run and may be cause for concern. Watching the game, I think the secondary’s issues were more lack of focus and playing down to their competition rather than a systemic problem. I honestly think after battling Notre Dame’s receivers to the death, the secondary thought they could just pop Eastern’s players and they’d go down. Hopefully, this was a learning experience along those lines.

It should be noted that when Mike Williams went down, Jordan Kovacs again replaced him without issue. Whenever you can replace a safety mid game and not end up crying, it’s win win. Kovacs was basically invisible to me, other than the occasional thought of "who’s the melanin deficient dude in the secondary?" So far, Kovacs is easily the best of the many walkons on the team and has thus far proven himself to be a capable player. The real test of this theory will begin over the next few weeks as teams start to attack Michigan’s secondary with a little more frequency and try to isolate Kovacs, Williams and Woolfolk in the passing game. I can’t imagine a Big Ten Offensive Coordinator saying "Oh look, a walkon. Lets go after Warren instead."

For the game, yay! No Big Plays! Woo. Overall, it’s still too early to tell.

Special Teams

After an off game, Zoltan has returned to his normal self and is back to booming the ball. He booted 4 punts for a 45.5 average, including a 59 yarder. Not so bad. The field goal unit was barely used, but Jason Olesnavage was good on his only try and all his extra points. The return game was decent off the tee, but we garnered almost nothing off punts. Part of this had to do with Eastern shanking the ball. Part to do with our obvious attempts to block everything. And finally, part to do with our desire not to turn the ball over. I’m fine with this. Out coverage on kickoffs and punts was much better than against Notre Dame. I’m positive this had something to do with the quality of athletes we were facing, but overall a much, much better coverage game.

Hail to the Victors! Michigan takes care of Eastern

SCM — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:32:04 -0000

On what can only be described as a gorgeous fall Saturday, this Michigan football team probably got a little more than they were expecting from EMU in the first half, but managed to overcome some difficulties to put 45 on the board and take care of business heading into the conference schedule. Oh and Carlos Brown had his "I'm FINALLY healthy" game that we've all been waiting a long time for. Congrats sir, congrats indeed.

Photo by John T Greilick, Detroit News via multimedia.detnews.com

Miscellaneous

- The 28 point margin of victory is the largest over a MAC team since Michigan rung up EMU to the tune of 55-0 back on 9/17/05. It's also the largest margin of victory period since shutting out Notre Dame 38-0 in 2007.

- I'm not going to join in on the whole "BTN ANNOUNCERS BLER BLER BLER!" nonsense mainly because I didn't think it was that terrible. Yeah they missed a few calls by misidentifying players (for example, Renaldo Sagesse is not Brandon Graham), but not enough to detract from the watching experience a la Mike Patrick. That said... it'd be wonderful if you could, you know, manage to get the cameras on the action on the field. I think we missed at least four plays Saturday, and apparently nobody realized that Roh intercepted that tipped pass.

- I didn't comment on this prior to the game, but a big ol' wag of the finger to the Big 10 for suspending Jonas Mouton for this football game. That was complete garbage. Watch the "play in question" and you tell me where he's deserving of any punishment at all, and nevermind the completely dirty play by the ND guy the entire time either. That was flat out horseshit and caving to the muffled cries of Charlie Weis is even worse. Furthermore, the conference has gone ahead and set an awesome precedent for themselves now, which Coach Rodriguez seems angry enough to bring up at every possible opportunity. Delany and crew can start here (Manny Harris agrees with me on this one):

- SPARTY NO! I still cannot believe the two play sequence of events that sealed MSU's doom down in South Bend on Saturday. That guy could not have been more wide open in the endzone, and then to follow it up Cousins makes perhaps one of the most ill-advised throws of all time, seriously, it's right alongside Stanley Jackson's toss back in '97. It's too bad too because the spleen coming from South Bend would've reached new highs had State pulled that game out. Also, if an opposing player takes a planned dive into your marching band, can you bitch about it endlessly to get that guy suspended for the next game?

- Florida... yawn. I thought they were supposed to beat Tennessee by eight billion? The fact that they only won by 10 against a team that clearly had no aspirations of, you know, throwing the football downfield should probably concern some of the Gator faithful, but hey, that's just my take.

- Penn State and Iowa... who knows anything about either of these teams? Nobody? Ok!!!

Offense

- I'm mentioning this first because its something that was so sorely missing last year and has made all the difference in the world this year: BLOCKING. Our blocking at the LOS and downfield has improved immeasurably since last season. The reason these guys are springing these huge plays now is because we've got guys doing all of the little things right without the football... just awesome.

- 380 rushing yards!!! 3rd longest run in school history!!! Nearly a 10 ypc average for the entire game!!!

- It was downright fun to watch Carlos Brown run the ball, not only did he display the legendary Spring Game top-end speed around which he has built a small legend, but on top of that he displayed a level of vision that I had not seen from him before. He ran hard, through tackles, picked his cut back lanes and really set up his blocks. Awesome performance. He could've named his yardage on Saturday, awfully proud of him and how well he's stuck this whole thing out.

- Would've liked to have seen just a little more of Mike Shaw and Vincent Smith since it's apparent that Brandon Minor just isn't that healthy yet. Speaking of that... Minor sure doesn't look "hobbled" out there, but if he's touch and go, why play him at all?

- I don't quite understand the "Tate Forcier played like a true freshman" drum-beat that I've seen since this game. No he didn't rack up a ton of yardage (we didn't have to throw), but the only two decisions that I have any problem with on his behalf at all were with ball security. He seemed to get a little lax on a few of his scrambles holding the ball out, and we were fortunate to recover when it was knocked loose. Throwing wise he looked absolutely fine. He and his receivers weren't helped at all by the non-PI calls either. He is going to have to learn that sometimes you just take the sack and live to fight again the next down. Also, please don't cause my heart to stop again, thanks.

- I really appreciate that we put that game away, 21 second half points to push it to 45-17 was great to see. I'm not advocating running up the score, just put the game away when you have the opportunity, thanks.

- I know we were going to get the ball to start the 3rd, but was anyone else stunned when we didn't go for it on 4th and 1 at the end of the first half??

- Denard is the man, he just brings so much to the table. Some people have taken a huge issue with his two picks. Nevermind that he threw an absolute strike on an out to Odoms who may or may not have bobbled the ball while going out of bounds. I don't question his ability to throw the ball at all. He needs those kinds of reps in games and should continue to receive them. He has an arm, let's just all remember that he's RIDICULOUSLY young and his decision making will improve.

- Not too much Koger Saturday (well not too much of any receiver really) but he made an absolutely fantastic block that wasn't highlighted by the BTN on Brown's first run from scrimmage.

- Webb needs to remember to run his routes to the sticks.

Defense

- Ok, going back and watching this, there are just a few issues I have...

- Tackling was noticeably sloppy... Troy Woolfolk, wrap people up please.

- Defensive line penetration was awesome at times and non-existant at others... we need to be more consistent here moving forward, although it would help if every once in a while the refs actually threw a flag for holding.

- Some CLEAR over-pursuit, many guilty parties here, but it sure seemed to me that people were forgetting what their roles were and losing contain on the outside a LOT in the first half. We bit so hard on that play-fake bootleg for a TD that it wasn't even funny.

- Did Eastern seriously run like 7 straight counter plays to score on that one drive? We were getting blown off the ball and sealed out of the lanes like we were playing a major power rushing attack there... did nothing for my defensive concerns about stopping the run. Yeek.

- Glad Mike Martin wasn't seriously injured, that EMU center did more than his share of chop blocking, of course it wasn't called once.

- Perhaps the worst pass-interference call I've ever seen against Cissoko... his coverage was better for the most part, but he was also completely bailed out on that 4th and goal where the EMU guy just dropped a perfect throw. The TV coverage even went back to point out how Boubacar turned the complete wrong way when the ball was thrown.

- Roh!!! Couldn't be more thrilled with the job he's done so far.

- I think the players are downplaying the adjustments at halftime. I have been thrilled with our 2nd half D thus far this year, tip o the cap to you Mr. Robinson... Now let's start doing it for 60 minutes eh?

- Mouton's absence likely had a larger effect than I would've anticipated. Speaking of LBs, Ezeh makes two plays a game that demonstrate what he could be at the LB spot, and about 6 plays a game that just don't make a whole lot of sense.

- I'm still a little surprised that we haven't seen any of Vlad at Safety... Kovacs has done a fine job don't get me wrong, but I'm surprised we haven't seen other guys get some time given our lack of depth.

Special Teams

- Olesnavage, keep drillin' em down the middle man, good on ya.

- Someone got a finger on that first punt and we had good pressure on their punts all day, I think we might get to one outright at some point this year.

- Dear Greg Mathews and/or coaching staff... MOVE UP AND CATCH THE BALL! What was going on Saturday?!?! It was pretty evident that their punter wasn't going to get the ball anywhere near where Mathews would line up before the play and yet did he move up even once? Nope. Cost us some serious field position on multiple occasions...

Final Thoughts

- Hard to find a whole lot to get worked up about in 45 - 17 win, yes the D didn't look dominant at times, but they clamped down big time in the second half. Yes we only threw for a meager amount of yards, but we didn't exactly have to throw, well ever. Again, it was nice to just come out and take care of business, especially once a few breaks put Eastern within shouting distance. Continue taking 'em one at a time and GO BLUE!

Unit by Unit: Breaking Down Michigan Football's Defense Following Its Win Over Notre Dame

Maize n Brew Dave — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:23:18 -0000

We're running a little behind, so it's time to get into the Michigan Notre Dame 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. There are the links, so now let's take a good hard look at....

The Defense

It's hard to put on a smilely face when your defense surrenders 34 points and 490 total yards, so we're not going to. The defense was not good. If you felt like saying awful, I wouldn't blame you. In terms of being fair, the Wolverines made some critical stops when they needed to. Over all, however, Weis and company had Michigan's number most of the day.

A picture is worth 2,200 words. via multimedia.detnews.com

The Defensive Line

With Notre dame in max protect most of the game, it wasn't going to be easy for Michigan to get pressure on Clausen. And they didn't. For the majority of the game Clausen was able to sit in the pocket and pick Michigan's secondary apart without anyone near him. Brandon Graham spent his entire day trying to split double teams or getting horse collared as he went around the left and right tackles. Even so, he was able to get some pressure and the occasional knock down of Clausen. Plus, he was stout in against the run, notching two TFLs. The day for the rest of the line was fairly muted. Craig Roh spent most of his day bull rushing his way out of position on sweeps and counters. Ryan Van Bergen and Brandon Herron were all but invisible. Mike Martin, like Graham, had two defenders in his way the entire game and got absolutely no pressure on Clausen. Ronaldo Sagesse played a little bit and faired decently. Other than that, nothing.

It's pretty clear from here out that teams will basically double the hell out of Graham and Martin and force Herron, Van Bergen and Roh to beat them. All three are undersized and got absolutely no pressure on Saturday. Maybe this is an aberration based on the quality of ND's offensive line, but I don't think so at this point. Because Michigan couldn't get any pressure on Clausen, or effectively stop the run, it forced the Wolverines to begin bringing the house on blitzes which resulted in some notable pressure (re: last ND offensive play) but also some huge wholes in the secondary. If Sagesse can start playing regularly, then yeah, that helps. But realistically, Herron, Van Bergen and Roh have to start getting pressure for this defense to be effective going forward. They weren't against Notre Dame, and the results are painfully obvious.

This was not a good performance.

(more after the jump.....)

The Linebackers

via mitheral.ca

Yeah. yeah. Kittens are Brian's thing. But you try finding a better metaphor for this group. Good lord were they bad. If Obi Ezeh wasn't getting caught out of position, Jonas Mouton was offering up chin music. Let's put it this way. Stevie Brown was our best linebacker. BY FAR. This guy is a converted safety who's time at Michigan is better known for his blunders than fine play. He was your best player. To his credit, this was not simply an issue of best by default. Brown was pretty damn good all things considered. He shot into the backfield and collected to TFLs. He forces a critical fumble. He didn't miss a tackle, and was excellent in space. Honestly, I'm starting to believe he's a legit linebacker. A horrid game against Eastern/State may dissuade me of this. But right now he's head and shoulders above Mouton and Ezeh.

Speaking of which. Lord. Bad gap play. Inability to shed blockers. Basically looking lost for most of the game. Roughing the passer. Etc... The majority of Notre Dame's 154 yards on the ground were directly attributable to poor linebacker play. Personally, I don't know what to make of it. All I know is that Michigan's linebackers were not the aggressors on most of their tackles, were flat footed at the point of contact, and only looked effective when they were told "Danny, I want that ball. Get me that ball." and turned loose on the blitz. And even then it was a little spotty. Something's gotta give soon. Notre Dame is not a rush first offense. If we play this way against pass based teams, God help us against power rushing teams like Penn State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, or Ohio State. But Dave, aren't some of those teams "spread" teams? Yeah, but they're all rush first teams with equal or better offensive lines (maybe not PSU, but they're huge so that evens out). If the linebackers can't start filling the proper gap and attacking the ball carrier rather than waiting for contact to comet to them, we're going to be in trouble.

The Secondary

via multimedia.detnews.com

I'm kind of at a loss to describe this. Boubocar Cissoko was awful. Just dreadful. Donovan Warren was decent, but I'm not anointing him Marlin Jackson II and I'm certainly not saying his performance warrants a high draft pick and loads of money. I thought he got away with a lot of defensive holding on the day. The second down pass on Notre Dame's final drive? Yeah. He's holding Tate's right arm the entire way. That said, for all but four plays (one of which was a TD that he was torched on) Warren ran with Notre Dame's receivers and basically planted himself in their helmets on each passing route. He's good, but play that game away from Ann Arbor and Warren's getting flagged fairly often.

Back to Boo Boo. He was alone the entire day against a guy that was faster, taller, older, and better than him all day. The results were not good. No safety help. No nothing. So you can write it up to growing pains. No. You can't. Boo Boo spent his entire day turning before he needed to. Opening his hips the wrong way on the cuts. Breaking from his back pedal way way way too soon. His tackling was mediocre at best.

Here's the thing. Boo Boo is a true sophomore. He'll get better or he'll get passed on the depth chart by Floyd or, hopefully, J.T. Turner. But he was going up against the best set of receivers he's going to see this year in his second game of the season after playing only a handful of games a year prior. I'm going write this up as a bad game for a kid with what I hope is a promising future. But he's going to need a lot of coaching after this game. Maybe he's gotten by on talent all this time and it's masked some deficiencies. It's possible. But right now he needs a lot of time in the film room and some heavy duty coaching.

Moving away from the corners and into the deep secondary, I have to admit I was very pleasantly surprised with the play of Michigan's safeties. Troy Woolfolk, Michael Williams, and later Jordan Kovacs played excellent. A reason for this may have been that Michigan was in deep cover for most of the game, but I thought they were pretty good. The two led the team with 8 tackles a piece, and had Williams not gone down with cramping, he probably would've been in the 10 tackle range.

If your question is "how can you be happy with 330+ yards in the air and the safeties?" the answer's simple. Michigan made Notre Dame earn the yards. Unlike last season, Notre Dame wasn't able to have one play drives. Sure, they gave up yards in chunks, but they didn't give up the bomb. There wasn't a "big play" per se. There were a lot of medium plays, but nothing crippling. The safeties were stout in the run game, especially when you consider just how bad the linebackers were, so they get some credit.

Overall, a decent day out of the safeties and an "Arg!" to "OMG Get me a gun!" day for the corners.

Special Teams

Rain = Pour. Special Teams were a mess too. Waaaaay too many long run backs on kickoff coverage. Zoltan Mesko was off all day as well, shanking a punt or two. A missed field goal from Jason oles....whatever. Defensive special teams were abysmal.

On the other side, the offensive special teams were generally okay (FGs not included). Darryl Stonum's run back was awesome and Michigan came close to breaking one or two other big runs. While Michigan's return game probably won them the game, their coverage almost lost it on a couple of occasions. There's plenty of work to be done.

Positional Matchup Ratings to Determine Outcome of Saturday's Michigan Notre Dame Game

Beauford — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:24:02 -0000

via i2.cdn.turner.com

This weekend, Notre Dame plays Michigan. You may have heard. Yesterday, I gave you a brief history of the rivalry, which I'm sure has been committed to memory by now. Today, I give you positional matchups in an attempt to see where this game is going to be won or lost. Let us begin.

Quarterback

Notre Dame

Notre Dame returns Jimmah Clausen fresh off completing 105% of his passes (the extra 5% is for love, which Jimmah pours into every pass) for a bazillion TD's against various WAC opponents. In all seriousness, the dude finally looked like the QB that he was expected to be, albeit against inferior competition. The third year in any program will do that to a guy. He's got a solid arm, but a little bit of a gunslinger attitude, throwing 17 INTS compared to 25 TD's. Like him or not, he's poised to have a big year, and if he can not be such an INT machine, could (gulp...going to do something I've never done before...agree with Lou Holtz) toss his hat in the ring for that ceremony in NYC.

Michigan

Michigan will start Forcier, and all indications point to him getting the vast majority of snaps with Denard-flashes mixed in accordingly. I look for Forcier to have a bigger role and a more traditional "starter" presence in this game due to what looks to be superior competition. Less time to mess around. I liked Tate's ability to keep plays alive, although I think he pulled it in to run a bit too soon on a few plays. If he continues to not turn the ball over and play smart, I think he'll do fine. And Denard is always a threat, as evidenced by the broken play magic that I've literally watched on loop 15 times in a row. Still, they are both Freshmen, and therefore not Junior Year former all world recruits.

Advantage: Notre Dame

More after the jump.

Running Back

Notre Dame

Ok, so Notre Dame's got Armando Allen who went for 76 yards against Nevada and didn't need to do much more due to Jimmah's air attack that, again, featured 105% accuracy. Last season he averaged 4.33 YPC, and the Irish running attack was ranked 44th in the country. This isn't a run-heavy team, but any coach will tell you that establishing a running game is paramount for the passing game. If going deep off play action is what ND wants to do, it's going to take a rolling running game to make it work. Allen isn't going to win this game on his own.

Michigan

Much like the QB situation, Michigan finds themselves in a "split role" situation with Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor. It looks like Minor is going to play after being listed as probable. The Notre Dame D line, to be detailed later, aren't exactly man-beasts up front and could be susceptible to the stylings of MINOR RAGE. With Brown and Shaw and Leetle Vincent Smith there to bounce it to the outside and provide that spark, the advantage...

Advantage Michigan

woo.

Wideouts

via nbcsportsmedia2.msnbc.com

Notre Dame

Michael Floyd averaged 47.7 yards per reception last game against Nevada. Golden Tate hauled in 3 catches for 59 yards. These are some fantastic numbers, but a quick look at the record shows that Nevada also clocked in last year with the 110th ranked pass defense in the country. So impressive as last game's numbers are, and they are impressive, I'm not sure they hold up against a team with a real-life pass defense. That being said, Floyd and Tate are both legitimate WR's who are good on the deep ball and have solid hands. They will present a problem.

Michigan

Hemingway is listed as doubtful (which provides a lot of literary jokes that I won't make. Yay liberal arts). He is Michigan's primary deep threat, based on last game, and will probably be replaced by Darryl Stonum, who has underwhelmed in the Spring. That ain't good. However, the emergence of Kelvin "last seen missing layups" Grady and the presence of Odoms and Matthews makes the loss manageable. If Stonum can run the routes, I expect he'll be targeted. What's been rumored shaky has been his hands, so, well, god help us. This offense relies more on the leetle slot dudes anyways, so the loss of Hemingway doesn't necessarily mean death. But it ain't good.

Advantage Notre Dame

Tight Ends

Notre Dame

Kyle Rudolph caught 4 balls for 29 yards last game. Weis does utilize the Tight End in the receiving game, so Rudolph will have to be accounted for. According to the House Rock Built, he's definitely more a receiving TE than a blocker. He'll be one of those guys Clausen hits on a 3rd and short that causes me to throw things.

Michigan

Kevin Koger's Catch (via davidrizik)

I think Koger is more athletic, and like much of Rodriguez's offense, he seems designed to run seam routes and look for big plays. That waggle last game was a thing of beauty. Rudolph seems more like a grind the chains type, while Koger seems more the big play type. Both important, both pretty good...

Advantage Push

Offensive Line

Notre Dame

As has been detailed here before, Notre Dame returns 4 starters on an offensive line that features more 5-stars than a meeting of the joint chiefs. Over the past 2 games - including last year's bowl game, obvs - they've given Clausen enough time to sling 9 TD's. With Clausen taking the expected leap into Junior year awareness, and a line that might actually provide him some protection, the passing game of ND could be pretty fierce. That said, Weis has really tinkered with the left side of the line, and that's exactly where Brandon Graham lives. Given that Rudolph isn't much of a blocking TE, Michigan could get pressure with 4 rushing.

Michigan

Well, the line looked pretty good against Western. Molk had some dumb holding calls, but in all, a pretty even day. I'm not terribly concerned with Notre Dame's defensive line, especially given that Nevada racked up 118 yards of rushing, and had their starter average 6.3 yards per carry. Given that Nevada was hovering around the top of the NCAA last year in rushing, this can be explained away, but Michigan's offensive line is going to be bigger and meaner than the Nevada line that had Notre Dame on skates for a good portion of the game.

Advantage Michigan but not by much

via 4.bp.blogspot.com

Defensive Line

Notre Dame

Well, I kind of blew it up there in the O-line section, but yeah, they didn't look good against Nevada. I think they're going to have their hands full with the Michigan offensive line, especially if Michigan decides to employ MINOR RAGE runs up the gut.

Michigan

The defensive line is probably the strong suit of this Michigan defense, featuring already ferocious Brandon Graham, developingly ferocious Mike Martin (GET IN THE CAR), and an impressively ferocious for being a true freshman and such Craig Roh. If Michigan can get their pass rush out of the front 4, they will do well. If they need to bring in a LB or Safety, they will be gambling.

Advantage Michigan

Linebackers

Notre Dame

Toryan, Scott and Brian Smith (not related AFAIK) make up the corp of this experienced unit. These two combined for 8 tackles, four of which were losses. Freshman all-everything recruit Manti Te'o will play as well, and while he had a "welcome to NCAA" type game against Nevada, he is still a presence to be dealt with. As a corp they are fast and experienced, and will definitely provide more of a challenge than WMU's. Missed blocks against this unit will equal immediate tackles; probably not "gets hit but drags the dude for 3 more yards." The UM linemen are going to HAVE to put a body on these guys.

Michigan

Ok, so Stevie Brown was significantly improved at his new linebacker position, just like we all knew he would be. Anybody who watched him wreck shit at the line of scrimmage last year then screw up coverage knew this. Next to him is Obi Ezeh, who looked pretty good against Western, but was found to be hesitant on a few plays:

Roh(+1), in a two-point stance as Michigan moves to an under look, attacks the RT. RT doesn't look like he's attempting to block Roh, as the play is supposed to go up the middle. This is a mistake: Roh gets underneath the guy and blasts him back into the ballcarrier as he passes. An unblocked Ezeh—no Broncos got off their doubles—cleans up. Michigan was in a pure eight-man front here, BTW, with a blitz off the edge from Williams absorbing a pulling TE. Would like Ezeh to be a little more proactive here and shut this down closer to the LOS.

I have no way of telling whether the UFR is the end-all-be-all or whether Ezeh had other responsibilities, but this was a recurring theme.

Advantage Notre Dame but not by much

Secondary

Notre Dame

Senior Kyle McCarthy and Sophomore Robert Blanton both got picks last week as they shut down Nevada's passing offense. Nevada, however, is a known running team, and while the DB's got a bit of work in, they weren't exactly facing Tom Brady's Patriots here. I expect the unit to be improved, if only because they were starting a slow white boxer at Safety prior to this year. The jury, however, is still out on this unit.

Michigan

Michigan meanwhile returns Donovon Warren, who was very impressive in his Junior year debut against Western, and Boubacar Cissoko who looked good at times, and competent at others. Boubacar was held out of the second half against Western due to a tweak, and what we saw behind him didn't looke good. I foresee Justin Turner getting some reps this game if Cissoko can't go or re-tweaks something. As long as the four man unit of Warren, Cissoko, Woolfork, and Williams stays on the field, Michigan has a good secondary. If just one of these dudes goes down, we're in trouble

Advantage Michigan as long as they don't get injured. If Floyd sees significant time, this shifts to ND quickly.

Special Teams

This punt still hasn't landed.

In all seriousness, Michigan holds an advantage in this area given the Zoltan factor as well as the 44-yarder kicked last week by Olesnavage. Notre Dame is starting some sort of freshman walkon not named Rudy at kicker, which is questionable, and has a serviceable punter.

The Upshot

I think Michigan actually has a better defense provided that they are able to stay on the field without their feet and tendons bending the wrong way. Notre Dame's, however, is not far behind and given the fact that the Michigan offense is still new and still run by newbies, we might be in trouble. If Tate can still make the smart decision in the face of the TENUTA-BLITZ, we'll be in business. If he gets flustered, well, it might be time to start thinking about Central.

Conversely, the Notre Dame offense is definitely better at this stage than the Michigan offense. So we've got a superior offense going against a superior defense, and a shaky offense going against a comparatively shaky defense but not as shaky as I'd like.

Much like Brian and House Rock Built guy, I see this coming down to a few big plays. Notre Dame will throw deep, and probably connect on one. Michigan might catch a TENUTA BLITZ on a screen that goes the distance. If we can force Clausen into Yakety-Sax mode - which he's prone to do in the Big House - we'll be in business. If he starts converting 3rd and 7's with regularity, we're toast.

Score predictions up later today.

Notre Dame at Michigan: The Preview

CW — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:00:46 -0000

My first visit to Notre Dame was as a senior in high school in March of 2004. Due to the generosity of the great Mr. Pete Shoop, my dad and I got front row seats to watch the Fighting Irish hockey team take out the favored Michigan Wolverines in the JACC. That September was my first Notre Dame football game, where the Fighting Irish football team took out the favored (and Rose Bowl-bound) Michigan Wolverines. In September of 2005, in Charlie Weis' second game as Irish head coach, Notre Dame went into the Big House and defeated the favored Michigan Wolverines.

This was a trend I would have been happy to see continue, but sadly, 2006 happened. Then 2007, and a pair of Yakety Sax montages later, the Michigan football program had asserted its dominance over the Irish in rather dramatic, quarterback-destroying fashion. The 2008 game in South Bend was some salve on the wound (a 21-0 lead ten minutes into the game tends to help mend broken hearts to some degree), but it wasn't quite enough. For the sake of exorcising the slapstick montage-worthy demons of '06 and '07, Notre Dame needs another win at Ann Arbor.

This request seemed considerably easier to fill with the turmoil surrounding the program after a 3-9 season, but the over-practicing allegations served as a circle-the-wagons/cry-at-a-press-conference opportunity for the maize and blue, and they handled Western Michigan with ease in their opener. The Forcier/Robinson combination at quarterback appears to be leaps and bounds better than everything trotted out under center last year, and things seem to be heading towards the usual Rich Rodriguez second year bounce.

There are a number of barriers between Notre Dame and a winning streak against Michigan, first and foremost being this game is being played on the road. On one hand, I'm not particularly worried about the crowd, but this Irish team was dreadful away from the friendly confines last year. This may have conveniently coincided with playing some of their tougher opponents (Southern Cal, Boston College, Michigan State) outside of South Bend, but still, the 2-4 record isn't great. What's even worse is the amazing -17 turnover differential, versus +12 at home (amazingly, Notre Dame didn't turn the ball over once in the losses to Syracuse and Pitt). You'd like to think that a junior quarterback bookended by two senior tackles would equal safety and security, but I can't shake the images of 2007 from my mind, and until Clausen and company prove they can move the ball down the field without firing a round or two into their feet, I'll just continue being nervous, thanks.

The biggest problem for the Irish is going to be in the trenches. To keep the offense moving, they'll need to contain the speed, size and talent of the Wolverine front. Brandon Graham is likely a future first round pick, and he's joined by freshmen Mike Martin (red shirt) and Craig Roh (true). There's some beef up there with a history of terrorizing Notre Dame quarterbacks, and this will be one of the tougher tests for the Irish offensive line after doing a very capable job in dealing with Nevada's pass rush. I don't think it's a stretch to say the caliber of athlete on Michigan might be slightly more polished than those hailing from the great city of Reno. We will address this later, but unless the Michigan secondary has gotten considerably better, I'm comfortable with the passing attack being able to pick them apart if there's time for Clausen to make any sort of read. If the line starts breaking down and chaos reigns, cover your eyes, as it's going to be a long, drunk afternoon for the Irish faithful.

Concern for the Irish on the other side of the ball stems from the Michigan offense, which is not dissimilar to Nevada's. Last year the Wolverines moved the ball well despite an early deficit, and considering the yards-per-carry achieved by the Wolf Pack, this should be a continued concern for Tenuta's defense. Not only was last year not a ringing success for the Irish defense (although Corwin Brown was more involved at that point), Pat White and Owen Schmitt ran wild down in the Gator Bowl in 2007, another instance of Rodriguez's offense besting Tentua's defense. At this point, Michigan fans can only dream of having a backfield combination that potent, but they certainly laid the hammer down on a Yellow Jacket defense that had been awfully stingy up until that point.

In the game last September, the Wolverines outgained the Irish by well over a hundred yards, and while the yards per rush wasn't overly intimidating (3.8), it was the penalties (7 for 79) and turnovers (6) that doomed the visitors. If you were to allow that the Forcier/Robinson combination is an improvement over Sheridan/Threet - and I think most UM fans are nodding their head in emphatic support of this concept now - then it doesn't seem like a leap to assume that the Wolverine offense will be even more potent this time around. When you factor in the bounce that comes in the second year of the RichRod system, the Irish defense could have its hands full. If the Irish don't tackle or take poor angles, there will be many chances for Michigan running backs to replicate Sam McGuffie's offensive outbursts last year.

But what about advantages for the Irish? Considering the talented speed that resides at the top of the defensive depth chart, I think this year's team is considerably more suited to deal with Rodriguez's spread and shred than last year's. Considering they used three wide receivers the majority of the time in the opener, Notre Dame has the ability to go nickel or dime and counter with Teo, Filer, Fleming, Brown and/or Walls, cutting off running lanes and chasing down quarterbacks when they escape the pocket. Nevada proved you could have success rushing at the interior of the Irish defensive line from the spread, but that should give Ethan Johnson, Ian Williams and the rest of a line a lot of lessons of what is coming at them. Simply put, I'm extremely comfortable if Notre Dame has to go nickel or dime, and would even prefer that versus the base 4-3.

Despite his great play in the opener, this is really Forcier's first start against a real defense (only limited disrespect to Western Michigan intended here, but they were returning 3 starters from a rather mediocre unit last year). Even though he'll be at home, Tate (or Denard Robinson, and hopefully Nick Sheridan) is going to have to deal with Tenuta blitzes nearly every play, which is something I don't think he saw in high school or in the spring scrimmage. While an experienced quarterback like White (only a sophomore at the time, but with almost a season and a half in the system under his belt) was able to take advantage of Georgia Tech, I would be surprised if Forcier was able to find running lanes, locate his hot routes and audible at the line with the same effectiveness. I could very well be wrong, but in the match-up of a freshman quarterback versus Jon Tenuta's defense, I'll take Tenuta until the freshmen prove otherwise. Colin Kaepernick - a very, very good dual-threat QB - looked completely out of sorts Saturday, and some of that has to be chalked up to the gentlemen in blue sprinting at him every play. The Irish needed some luck to get the shutout, but they still did a solid job containing one of the more potent offenses in the country.

For the Notre Dame offense, it really just comes down to providing protection for Clausen, as I don't see a way the Michigan secondary can contain the combination of Tate, Floyd, Rudolph and whoever ends up in the slot. From MGo a bit earlier in the week:

What happens when Notre Dame goes to three-wide?

Nothing. Michigan spent the entire day its base set and has no corner depth. They do have guys on the edge who can cover Robby "That's Racist" Parris or whoever; it's not like Notre Dame's backup WRs are speed demons.

Despite the fact I have no idea who would end up in the slot in that situation (a healthy Kamara could bump Tate there, Parris, Evans), I love the idea of Michigan just staying in their base defense. When Notre Dame had success against the Wolverines on offense in the Quinn/Weis years, it came almost exclusively from spreading the defense out and taking whatever was there (the opening drive in the 2005 game, the last drive of the first half in the 2006 game). If Michigan's defensive plan revolves around Stevie Brown trying to check Shaq Evans or Robbie Parris for four quarters, the Irish should score points in droves, unless....

Yes, of course, none of that matters unless the Irish can keep Graham and his friends from mauling Jimmy all day. Last year the line was successful in keeping Jimmy intact, but the early deficit and wet conditions in the second half meant that there wasn't a lot of drop-back passing late. Football almost always comes down to line play, and this game will be no different. It becomes even more important because Michigan's secondary doesn't have the depth or size to deal with the Irish skill positions (Rudolph has at least six inches on any safety he might encounter downfield), so again, please block those large gentlemen up front and let the cards fall where they may.

Considering how Notre Dame vs. Michigan was relegated to a dark match the last few years, it's nice to see it back at the top of the card after the two non-embarrassing opening weekend performances. This game is always big to both programs, but when you consider the light schedule tomorrow, a lot of people will be taking a lengthy look at both teams. It would be nice if the Irish could silence a few more critics, but just like everything else this season, they're going to have to earn it.

We knew we'd learn a lot about this year's team after the opening trio of games, but I feel like this trip to Ann Arbor looms particularly large. A win? It would give both Weis and Clausen a winning record against Michigan, and let the Irish program take another step in the correct direction, all while causing a great deal of pain for one of the Irish's most hated rivals. A loss? One more year of ridicule, sadness and a bunch of questions going into Michigan State. Personally, I'd prefer the former, and I'm not sure my heart could take the latter.

Unit by Unit: Breaking Down Michigan Football's Defense Following Its Win Over Western Michigan

Maize n Brew Dave — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:26:27 -0000

A new weekly post game feature here at Maize n Brew will be what we like to Unit by Unit. 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. There are the links, we've already broken down the Offense, so now let's take a good hard look at....

The Defense

Michigan's defense deserves some significant praise for an outstanding game on Saturday. Save a garbage time touchdown pass, the Defense played outstanding football. Despite being advertised as a 3-4 defense, Robinson's boys showed a lot of 4-3 alignments, hammering Western at the point of attack. Even when the Wolverines switched back to a 3-4, they were just as dangerous, getting penetration and thumping Hiller. What was the most impressive thing was the improvement in tackling. No more one arm whiffs. Michigan wrapped up and drove through its tackles. Sure there will be a few misses that show up in MGoBlog’s UFR, but over all it was night and day from 2008. Just nine months removed from looking slow and confused the Wolverine Defense was fast and furious. Hat’s off to Greg Robinson and the coaching staff for an excellent game plan and some great fall coaching.

Awesome Photo via John T. Greilick Detnews.com

The Defensive Line

With just one returning starter on the line, Michigan fans were rightfully petrified of what would happen when their defense saw the field. Last year was, after all, the worst defense in school history and Michigan is now breaking in its third defensive coordinator in three years.

Only thing is, the Defensive Line was really, really good. The Wolverines terrorized Tim Hiller all game. Brandon Graham didn't register a sack, but spent his entire afternoon introducing Mr. Hiller to the field turf, face first. Mike Martin was even better than advertised, clogging the middle of the line, penetrating into the pocket and disrupting plays. At one point Martin blew through the line and pancaked poor Tim Hiller before he had a chance to realize that an angry 300 pound man was approaching him. Both veterans were awesome. Want a kick ass stat? At halftime Western had just 2 rushing yards on 11 attempts. That’s a 0.2 YPC. How awesome is that? Overall, the line limited Western and its 2008 1000 yard rusher to just 38 total yards on the ground.

(More breakdown of the Michigan Defense after the jump.....)

Awesome Photo via John T. Greilick Detnews.com

Surprisingly, it wasn’t just the veteran linemen getting into the act. Brandon Herron, Ryan Van Bergen and Craig Roh were all over the offensive backfield, tallying 11 tackles and 2 TFL between them. A minor surprise amidst all the bigger ones was that Craig Roh (#88 at left) earned the start at the "hybrid" linebacker/DL position. Frankly, the kid was just as good as advertised in the pass rush. I was stunned to see him bull rush and flatten just about everyone who got in his way to the quarterback. What also surprised me is his discipline. He wasn’t just rushing the passer, he was stopping the run. It’s hard to get too excited about any player after a single game, but when he gets a full season in a college weight program he could really be something special. Even though he lost the starting nod to Roh, Brandon Herron looked fairly capable in the hybrid role. Herron got good penetration and was adequate manning his gaps. I didn’t see him out of position that often, and seemed to take on blockers without too much difficulty. Van Bergen looked pretty good as well, even if he was overshadowed a tad by Roh and Herron. Lining up as a hybrid DT/DE Van Bergen ate up two lineman at a time and still managed to get pressure on Hiller, meeting Roh at Hiller’s ribcage to split a sack.

I thought it was a great game from the Defense against a good offensive unit.

The Line Backers

Like the Defensive Line, the linebacking corps was a pleasant surprise on Saturday. The surprise being they actually looked like they knew what they were doing. Put bluntly, these guys couldn't find their ass with a flashlight and a GPS last year. Saturday was an entirely different story.

Awesome Photo via John T. Greilick Detnews.com

On Saturday they were flying around the field. Stevie Brown looked like an entirely different player on Saturday. Good in coverage, good at the line of scrimmage. Obi Ezeh and Jonas Mouton were flying to the gaps, and unlike last year, they were the right gaps. Any over pursuit was limited. Assignments weren't blown. I thought Ezeh, in particular, shed blocks very, very well, and tackled in space better than I’ve ever seen this group do. They actually looked like they knew what they were doing. Compare this to ANY point last season. It's night and day. 20 tackles 1.5 TFL and a pick. And what a pick.

If you’re looking to nit pick, and I’m sure you are, you can say that Ezeh and Mouton aren’t aggressively filling some of their gaps. You can say that Brown is still undersized and will have some problems when larger, faster linemen get up on him. Even if you say all of that, it was still a pretty good game from the Linebackers.

As an added bonus, Michigan was able to play J.B. Fitzgerald a bit. Greg Robinson may not be a miracle worker. He may not be a savior. Hell, this could all fall apart tomorrow. But for one day, we saw the Michigan defense, and in particular, the linebacking play we expect out of Michigan. And Robinson deserves a lot of credit for that.

The Secondary

Awesome Photo via John T. Greilic Detnews.com

With the exception of a 73 yard screw up, the secondary played very well. Because Western couldn’t move the ball at all, Tim Hiller was left to chuck the ball all over the field. As best he could. 39 times. That’s a lot of passes in comparison to 24 rushing attempts. But when you look at the boxscore at the end of the game and see 263 yards in the air, you really don’t get a true picture of just how dominant the pass defense was.

At halftime Michigan had limited Western to 81 passing yards on 24 attempts and 13 completions. One of those incompletions was a pick. That’s less than 4 yards an attempt and less than 7 yards a completion. So the halftime stats tell a better, more accurate account of how the group fared.

Individually, I thought Boo Boo played the best game out of the corners. Granted my view was obscured by the TV and all the Kentucky fans stumbling into the hotel lobby from the Kentucky/Miami of Ohio game (I was at a hotel in Cincinnati directly across from Paul Brown Stadium [Kentucky won 49-0, BTW]), but Boo Boo looked gooooood. He was good in tight coverage, pressing the receivers and dropping back into zone. His pick, while simply being in the right place at the right time, was impressive because of how he handled it. He caught it awkwardly, but kept his balance and actually shifted the ball away from the contact side as if he was a running back. The kid is impressive. If he can stay healthy, I think we’ve got a great player back there. Thankfully, it also looks like he’s going to be healthy to play against Notre Dame.

On the other side, it’s not like Donovan Warren had a bad game. He was pretty impressive as well, generally matching up against Western’s best WR, Juan Nunez, and shutting him down. You’ve gotta knock him down to a B+ because of one legit PI call, one bad PI call, and losing his cool. Warren was great in coverage for the most part. But he’s going to have play under control against the Irish to be successful.

As for the safeties, I didn’t really notice them that much. After a year of saying "Oh my god, the safeties," this was a welcome change. Troy Woolfolk and Mike Williams only combined for 7 tackles, but the fact they didn’t have to make that many stops is a welcome change. The lone screwup was a fourth quarter 73 yard TD pass. Williams and Woolfolk got sucked up into the box on play action and JT Floyd (subbing in for the injured Cissoko) let Nunez get away from him. Play action was a bit of a bugaboo for Michigan last season, so I have to admit the fact that it worked to the tune of a long touchdown concerns me a little bit. But overall, the safeties were very good.

If there’s a "meh" aspect of the secondary’s game, it was Floyd giving up the long touchdown. Once J.T. Turner is ready, I have to imagine he’ll take over the nickel job/first corner off the bench job.

Special Teams

With the exception of Zoltan Mesko, Space Emperor, Special Teams was a total question mark. Who was going to return punts and kick offs? Who’s going to kick field goals? Can anyone hold onto the damn ball?

Those questions were answered, and answered well. Jason Olesnavage booted a 44 yard field goal on his first opportunity ever. That’s going to be huge going into the Notre Dame game. Special props to Greg Mathews for fielding punts and not dropping them. I thought Mathews actually showed some shiftiness in the return game when given a chance, but most importantly, he didn’t fumble. Finally, I thought the kick coverage was fairly good.

Awesome Photo via John T. Greilick Detnews.com

Overall, a great game all around from the Wolverines.