Grades: Michigan football team gets best marks on offense
Offense Carlos Brown had another nice day, scoring two touchdowns early, but Michigan somehow forgot about him in the second and third quarters. Both freshmen quarterbacks had careless turnovers and snaps were a problem with the revamped line. Of course, winning solves all ills, and Tate Forcier got the job done again in the fourth quarter. Grade: B-minus
Defense Too many problems to count. Indiana rolled up 467 yards of total offense and Darius Willis more than doubled his career output with 152 yards rushing. The tackling was poor and big plays were a problem. Only holding the Hoosiers to four field goals on trips inside the red zone keeps this from being an F. Grade: D Special teams A mixed bag. Zoltan Mesko was solid as usual. He benefitted from one long roll and had a punt touched dead at the 2. Darryl Stonum had a couple big returns as well. But Indiana hit a couple nice returns of its own, and Michigan took a careless offsides on kickoff. Grade: C-plus Coaching Michigan looked ill prepared for Indiana’s pistol offense from the opening series. The Hoosiers were more creative with their play calls, and Michigan seemed to get out of rhythm by rotating its quarterbacks and running backs. On the plus side, coaches dialed up the right play call on Forcier’s final touchdown pass. Grade: D Unsung hero J.T. Floyd played most of the final three quarters in place of an ineffective Boubacar Cissoko at cornerback. Ryan Van Bergen (a sack on Indiana’s second-to-last series) and Brandon Graham (six tackles) made more splash plays, but Floyd gave a big lift to Michigan's reeling secondary. Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
Comments
rensational
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 : 4:24 p.m.
Absolutely agree about the offense, particularly not running Brown or Minor much in the middle quarters--actually wrote about that on my blog yesterday. I do think Michigan can beat Michigan State. MSU is better than Indiana and they won't finish last in the BT (Illinois). But they have a defense Michigan can exploit. MSU's D and mistakes (offsides against Central Michigan, interception/missing a wide-open man against Notre Dame) are why they're in the position they're in now, and any team that has pretty good offense has been surviving against them (Wisconsin, in reality, blowing them out--forget that final score). It will be a shootout, but Forcier, Brown and Robinson will, once again, make the necessary plays while the defense will do juuuuuust enough, like they have all season long. That Iowa game--forget that one. Michigan won't get past their D. First loss of the season, trust me--not against MSU.
sikness
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 : 2:18 p.m.
NC wolv How many "plays away" you are from a record is irrelevant. UM is 4-0 because we make the plays. MSU is 1-3 because they don't. If this game is a nail biter, as I expect it should be, that only plays in our favor because we know we can make the play to win it, and MSU can't.
NC Wolverine 20
Sun, Sep 27, 2009 : 2:08 p.m.
MSU is a much better team than Indiana. They are 2 plays away from being 3-1. U-M is 2 plays away from being 2-2. Next Sat. will be a very long day unless the Wolverines play MUCH better.
heartbreakM
Sun, Sep 27, 2009 : 1:27 p.m.
I agree about the poor coaching, as much as good execution from Indiana. I do realize execution is based on practice and repetition, but Indiana held their blocks and got outside on our guys way too often, often by good team play. Some of that happens though the team needs to be taught to not allow that to happen (yet we enjoy it when we do it to the opponent, too). Now, I don't if anyone else has seen this, but in 4 games so far, Ezeh has been invisible--unacceptable for a 3rd year linebacker veteran. Mouton and Brown were OK, but as much as the D-line is getting huge holes opened up for the RB to hit, the linebackers are simply not there in the gaps, the way Irons, Anderson, etc had been. I guess that reflects on bad coaching from Hopson and Robinson. The offense was puzzling--Brown was gashing for big runs--9 ypc yet he only had 8 carries by the beginning of the 4th quarter? When a back is hot, he needs to have that ball in his hands. Wear them down. And why not get out of the shotgun when we are clearly having probs snapping? That stubbornness is the same type of thing that caused us to lose last year when the personnel did not fit Rod's narrow world view of "my offense or no offense". Can we never see a direct snap? I remember losing to Illinois in 1999 due to an errant snap over Brady's head--in the shotgun that would not have happened in a normal snap. I sometimes wonder why coaches are so stubborn on such things.
azwolverine
Sun, Sep 27, 2009 : 12:25 p.m.
Looking ahead to the Big Ten slate, I think our defense appears faster than in the past and capable of catching runners around the edges, but are maybe not as strong/big as traditional Michigan defenses, at least along the line, and are being dominated by runs up the gut. They are getting pushed off the ball and teams are getting big chunks up the middle. Just an observation. Hopefully they either come up with something scheme wise to stop that, or in the future pack on some more size on the d line.
Txmaizenblue
Sun, Sep 27, 2009 : 1:16 a.m.
As I stated earlier in the week - playing without your starting center makes a greater impact on the offense than most people recognize. I anticipated some fumbles snaps a perhaps one bad miss fire - but never thought it would be that bad. I wouldn't be calling Indiana the worst Big Ten team. They looked much improved to me. I don't see Northwestern or Michigan State being any better at this point. I don't see Michigan winning the next two road games without Molk. I'll be surprised if they do. Although, its hard to count them out of anything as long as Forcier has two legs to stand on and is breathing.
Merkin
Sat, Sep 26, 2009 : 11:57 p.m.
I would say it's a victory for Barwis. The game was ugly but I think it was pretty obvious we were in much better condition towards the end of the game.
HailToASquared
Sat, Sep 26, 2009 : 11:42 p.m.
Indiana isn't the worst team in the Big Ten.. I promise they won't finish last. Save that for little brother :P
azwolverine
Sat, Sep 26, 2009 : 9:48 p.m.
Yeah, Michigan was lucky to escape with a win against the worst team in the Big Ten...at home, no less. Not a good job all the way around, from the preparation to the performance. We need to improve dramatically next week to have a shot. On the plus side, Michigan showed character at the end and pulled it out...more a relief victory than a celebration. Time to forget about this one and focus on MSU.