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Football
Michigan Monday
By Tony GerdemanYou almost wouldn’t wish this type of opening on your worst enemy--almost.
There were times early on that Michigan’s offense looked like they may have something going on. And then reality would set in. You know how sometimes you think you have a great idea, and then a few moments later, common sense takes over? This was sort of like that.
I have no doubt that while watching the game, Michigan fans were asking where the tight end was, or where the screen to the tailback was. The answer is simple--they left with Lloyd.
Michigan fans are going to have to get used to what they are watching. They’re going to have to learn to like the taste of suck for awhile.
For the moment, it looks like Michigan football will be more fun for Buckeye fans than Michigan fans.
But things won’t always be this bad for the Wolverines. The future is only a day away. Or 365. But who’s counting?
Nobody thought Rodriguez would come to Ann Arbor and the transition would be seamless. Problems were expected. I don’t know if they were expecting the problems to have such mass, however. Michigan’s problems are so big and dense, they have little satellite problems orbiting around them.
But this is the process when a coach who is dependant upon a system moves locations--he has to construct his system with another coach’s parts. It’s rarely pretty. Bob Stoops was able to move from an option team to a passing team in one season better than anybody, and he still only finished 7-5 his first year.
And while Ohio State fans bask in glee and Schadenfreude, Rich Rodriguez is building the program the way he wants it. The way he needs it. Mobile quarterbacks. Supremely quick running backs. Wee speedsters split out. And athletes on defense. Add it all up, and you’ve got yourself a Big East contender.
But is that the best Michigan fans can hope for?
When Michigan Had The Ball
Well, I think nearly everybody expected something like this for portions of the game, but I’m not sure anybody expected it for all sixty minutes.
The quarterbacks were as advertised, which is not good. Nick Sheridan started and he looked under control early on. He showed good velocity in the short and mid-range game, but when he went deep, his accuracy disappeared. He finished 11-19 for 98 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, when Sheridan would go downfield, it would not necessarily be headed in any specifically good direction. In all fairness, Sheridan is lucky he didn’t have four or five interceptions in the first half.
And then Stephen Threet came in. Threet showed a better deep ball, but his slow, looping delivery seems to reduce the accuracy of his short game. He finished 8-19 for 69 yards and a touchdown. If you could put Threet and Sheridan together and combine their strengths, you’d probably have somebody capable of starting for Minnesota--if Adam Weber got injured.
Of course, the running game didn’t help matters. The Wolverines carried the ball 25 times for 36 yards. They actually gained 62 yards, but lost 26 via sacks and backfield stoppages, so it wasn’t as bad as you’d think--but it was very, very close.
Freshman tailback Sam McGuffie led Michigan with eight carries, finishing with eight yards. He also lost nine yards while he was at it. He also had a fumble in which Nick Sheridan tried taking the ball back from him after giving it to him on the read option. Immediately after the play was over, McGuffie was pointing fingers--literally. It doesn’t look like it took long for frustration to set in.
The best run of the day came from Brandon Minor, who busted a run up the middle for 21 yards and it was as fast as anybody on the team looked all day--but that’s what happens when you see something going north and south after watching east and west all day. Minor finished with 21 yards rushing on the day, despite getting four carries total. He led the team in rushing yards.
At the 7:33 mark of the third quarter, Steven Threet was the leading rusher for the Wolverines with a total of six yards.
Freshman Martavious Odoms led the team with five receptions, but only managed seven yards. There are still quite a few issues with blocking for screens here. Tight end Mike Massey whiffed on a block in the game that got Odoms tackled for a big loss. Early in the game, offensive linemen were so worried about getting out and blocking for the screens that they were more concerned in getting to their spots rather than blocking. There is so much thinking going on right now that you can hear the gears grinding.
Michigan did go downfield more than I expected, but much of that was due to needing to move the ball in the second half. One thing that I really liked was how the center snaps the ball automatically when somebody jumps offsides and one of the outside receivers just runs a fly pattern and the quarterback throws it up for grabs. It’s a free play and Michigan did it twice, converting it to Greg Mathews once. It’s a smart play and I don’t understand why more teams don’t do it.
The Wolverine offensive line had some issues. The tackles, Mark Ortmann and Stephen Schilling, both had problems getting out and blocking on screens. And there was no running room out wide. Early on, the right side of the offensive line played well, especially in pass protection. The offensive line finished the game with three sacks.
The interior of the offensive line didn’t play much better. Tim McAvoy started at left guard, David Molk started at center and David Moosman started at right guard. Only five offensive linemen played, so it looks like the staff wasn’t too keen on getting John Ferrara out there yet.
The only interior run of the day that netted anything was Brandon Minor’s 21-yard scoot straight up the gut. Later on, McGuffie was able to sneak into the end zone up the middle, but other than that, there was no push and there was no running room between the tackles.
All in all, it was a pitiful exhibition.
Michigan did have four scoring drives, but if you look at those drives, you’ll see that there were no sustained drives and they all came from Utah mistakes.
Michigan’s first scoring drive was a 26-yard touchdown drive that came when Utah fumbled a punt. The Wolverines’ second scoring drive came after Brandon Harrison returned a kickoff to the Michigan 35-yard line and Utah tacked on fifteen more yards thanks to a personal foul call. The scoring drive totaled 17 yards on six plays and ended in a 50-yard field goal. Their third scoring drive was a 33-yard touchdown pass from Threet to Junior Hemingway, following a blocked punt. The fourth scoring drive came after a fumble recovery at Utah’s 31-yard line. All tolled, Michigan’s scoring drives accounted for 107 total yards. They finished the day with 203 yards of total offense.
The only reason this game was close was because Utah allowed it to be via mistakes and mental errors. It was almost as if they were contractually obligated to keep Michigan in the game.
When Michigan Was On Defense
The one thing Michigan had to hang their hat on was the fact that they’ll be returning an experienced defense, and this would make the offensive transition easier to handle.
Well, with one half of football under their belts, Michigan had given up 313 yards of total offense to the Utes. Now, they did respond in the second half, and the Utes only finished with 341 yards of total offense, but Utah did scale it back some. However, only giving up 28 yards in the second half, regardless of how much a team is trying to run the clock, is still impressive.
Utah’s most effective running game came when running back Matt Asiata would take the snap and just run it up into the line. He finished with 77 yards rushing and didn’t get stopped behind the line once. Carlos Brown ran this same formation for the Wolverines once in the game, but probably should have done it more. Expect to see it more next week.
While Michigan only gave up 36 yards rushing in total, that’s a pretty deceptive stat in that it also includes sacks and the yards quarterback Brian Johnson was losing on purpose in running out the clock late in the fourth quarter.
Middle linebacker Obi Ezeh finished with 15 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss. He was generally everywhere Matt Asiata was and showed good pursuit. He also had an interception downfield off of a tipped pass, which showed his range. Ezeh is clearly better than he was last season, and he was a Freshman All-American last season.
The rest of the linebackers are still up for debate. Austin Panter and Marell Evans started with Ezeh and I’m not sure what to make of them yet. Evans had moments of mental opaquity, especially on a swing pass to Matt Asiata that went for 39 yards. Evans is still a young player, so you’d expect that he’d get to that play quicker next time.
Panter looked good coming off the edge on blitzes, but there were also times when he was caught lined up with slot receivers, which should bring back visions of Chris Graham’s pass defense, which might keep Michigan fans up at night.
The pass rush was very good--as was expected. There were times when defensive ends Brandon Graham and Tim Jamison were held more than a newborn at a family reunion.
Jamison was credited for two sacks, while Graham was credited for one. Brandon Graham also finished with 3.5 tackles for loss and looked very good at times.
Defensive tackle Will Johnson was also very pursuant. He finished with two sacks, including one where he chased a mobile Brian Johnson down from behind. Johnson’s linemate, Terrance Taylor was fairly quiet and could be seen jogging in the background on some plays. Renaldo Sagasse and Mike Martin also played and there were times when Martin, a true freshman, was getting a very good push. There were also times where he was getting tossed around. The life of a freshman, no doubt.
Michigan’s pass rush was of great benefit to the Wolverines’ secondary, but they still had their issues. Brian Johnson passed for 253 yards in the first half, and cornerback Donovan Warren was the target of a great deal of Johnson’s passing.
Warren came into this season with budding accolades and perhaps he was taking too much of it in. He was attacked early and often, and generally with success. He got taken on a skinny post in the first half, however, when Utah tried it again in the second half, he jumped it and broke it up. Cornerbacks aren’t supposed to have memories, but he definitely showed that he had that one saved somewhere.
Morgan Trent, sad as this may be for Buckeye fans to here, played extremely well. He only gave up a couple of catches and showed tremendous help in run support. Trent looks like a tackler and a hitter this year. Believe me, if I could be critical of him, I would.
The safeties weren’t too bad either. I wasn’t expecting much from Stevie Brown, simply because I’ve seen him play before. But he had a great tipped pass down towards the end zone that led to Obi Ezeh’s interception, and he was also involved in the running game quite a bit. He finished with seven tackles, which tied him for second on the team.
Brandon Harrison got the start and played okay. He did give up a long gain on a corner route however.
Overall, there was some very mixed results. The 313 yards of total offense in the first half cannot be forgotten or explained away as jitters. The shutdown in the second half does deserve some credit, but let’s also not forget that Utah wanted this game to end as quickly as possible, and anything they could do to help, they were going to do. The other thing to worry about was the fact that Matt Asiata was able to get good yardage running between the tackles--and everybody knew it was coming. He was getting a direct snap, so it’s not like he was going to throw the ball. I don’t even think he handed it off once.
Also, this was the most number of players I’ve seen Michigan play on defense in two years. I’m not sure if that’s because of depth and everybody’s good enough to play, or because Rodriguez and his defensive staff are still looking for players good enough to play.
The Michigan Special Teams
Well, the first thing I noticed was that Brandon Harrison had some impressive kick returns. He had two kickoff returns, averaging 27 yards per return, and showed the speed that we’ve only heard about from him. He also displayed good vision and quick decision-making on his cuts. He could be in for a big year here.
The punt return game was non-existent. Donovan Warren only had two returns, but was tackled immediately on both.
The punting game should be a concern as Zoltan Mesko is apparently continuing the regression that started last year. He punted seven times for an average of 37.7 yards with a long of 44 yards, and he only put one kick inside the 20-yard line. He also had a bad shank on his own side of the field.
K.C. Lopata displayed the stronger leg that we have heard about when he kicked a 50-yard field goal into the back of the net. It’s pretty clear where Mike Barwis’ actual impact has come.
What Does It All Mean
It means Rich Rodriguez is going to have to get a bigger drawing board.
The east west stuff wasn’t working on the ground, so they may want to go a little more north and south, except for the fact that there’s so little push up front.
Stephen Threet would allow the offense to move quicker downfield, if only he had a smidge of accuracy.
Nick Sheridan looked good at times, but he has moments where he just throws the ball up for grabs. You can’t play a guy who does that. I would rather have a guy who drills the ball six feet short of his intended target than one who throws up passes that could be fair caught by the free safety.
Issues, man. Issues.
Michigan’s second-half defense needs to take their first-half defense out back and pummel it. I’d like to say that Michigan is going to be okay on defense this year, but who knows which defense we’ll see from game to game--or half to half.
However, if I’m playing against Michigan, I’m spreading them and either taking shots at Austin Panter, or running with my quarterback. Michigan’s defense will be on the field all game long--and even longer than that because their offense runs the blasted no-huddle, and they do it on speed. The defense barely has a chance to get yelled at by their coaches before they have to get back out on the field.
There is no quick fix here. There is no pulling the band-aid off all at once. Imagine a line of band-aids running up your leg from your toe to your hip, and you’re yanking them off one by one. That is what this transition is going to feel like.
But slowly the pain goes away.
Very slowly.
The Road To The Big One
Aug 30 Loss to Utah 25-23 (0-1)
Sept 6 Miami OH
Sept 13 at Notre Dame
Sept 27 Wisconsin
Oct 4 Illinois
Oct 11 Toledo
Oct 18 at Penn State
Oct 25 Michigan State
Nov 1 at Purdue
Nov 8 at Minnesota
Nov 15 Northwestern
Nov 22 at Ohio State
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