Play-calling proved pivotal for both Michigan and Notre Dame
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez faced a difficult decision with just over three minutes to play and his team down a field goal Saturday: Punt and give the ball back to Notre Dame, possibly to never see it again, or try and convert a near-impossible fourth-and-14. Â
Rodriguez choose to punt, and thanks in part to a questionable decision by Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, it turned out to be the right move. “I wasn’t 100 percent convinced to” punt, Rodriguez said. “Not that I didn’t trust the defense, you hate to give up the chance to win the game. “If it wasn’t fourth-and-12, I probably would have went for it. If it was fourth-and-less-than-5, I probably would have went for it. But with 10 to 12 yards, the odds of getting that are pretty rare, and we got a great punter.” Zoltan Mesko pinned Notre Dame at its own 16 with a 34-yard kick, and the Irish took over with 3:07 to play. They picked up one first down, but punted the ball back to Michigan less than a minute later after two incomplete passes. Weis’ play-calling allowed Michigan to keep its final two timeouts, which it used on the game-winning drive. Tate Forcier found Greg Mathews for the go-ahead score with 11 seconds left. Weis defended his decision to pass after the game, saying he called “the same pass we had been hitting all day.” Donovan Warren broke up Jimmy Clausen's second-down pass to Golden Tate. On third down, freshman Shaquelle Evans, playing in place of injured receiver Michael Floyd, turned too late to catch another Clausen misfire.
Weis defended his decision to pass after the game, saying he called “the same pass we had been hitting all day.” Donovan Warren broke up Jimmy Clausen's second-down pass to Golden Tate. On third down, freshman Shaquelle Evans - playing in place of injured receiver Michael Floyd - turned too late to catch another Clausen misfire. Clausen finished the day 25-of-42 passing for 336 yards. Rodriguez said he understood Weis' decision to pass. “They were just trying to win the game,” he said. “I don’t question that at all. They’ve got a big-time quarterback, he’s an NFL kid. They had success all game and they’re just trying to get a first down and win the game. I don’t blame them at all.”
Comments
heartbreakM
Sun, Sep 13, 2009 : 8:29 p.m.
Well, I think this win is big for Rich Rod, but let's not overdo it. Comparing it to Bo's win in 1969 fails for the following reasons: 1. It was OSU 2. It was student over teacher 3. It was for a championship 4. OSU had shellacked M the previous year, 50-14 5. It was Woody, not Weis 6. It was against what many considered the best team in college football history. Let's put this win into perspective--it gives the program a lot of momentum and confidence. It establishes Forcier as a QB. It gives Rod a big win, but we have no idea how good ND is or will be (though they looked very good). If Michigan continues to play well, it may end up being big--certainly the bigger M-ND games, but unfortunately, M cannot get any better when playing the likes of EMU and Del State. This scheduling does the team a great disservice because beating those teams cannot help our standing. Add that with OSU's loss to USC, PSU's mediocre start, MSU's loss to CMU and even if M goes 12-0, I don't think there's any way for them to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the nation. If beating the B10's best means beating teams that cannot beat anybody else, then our schedule proves its point that it is all about making money and easy W's rather than improving as a team. So great win, but let's wait and see how it plays out. If M goes into MSU and Iowa and lay goose eggs, this win is for naught.
funkwazzie
Sun, Sep 13, 2009 : 5:35 p.m.
joeing, i agree about the 40-50% number you're throwing out there. Hell, yesterday, we had other fans behind us telling us to sit down. What a joke. Sometimes it seems like the majority of alumni get a bigger kick out of the band than they do watching the game and if they have to stand to watch it during key plays, it seems like a pain it their ass. All in all it did seems louder. I'm not saying there were more people cheering because that definitley wasn't the case where i was sitting but the towers for sure hold some sound in now. I think they should extend them all around the perimeter.
joeing
Sun, Sep 13, 2009 : 3:10 p.m.
Sheesh, typos. I meant it's not like Michigan fans didn't have anything to cheer about BEFORE yesterday. And, the Purdue game I was referring to was A FEW YEARS ago, obviously, not "a year ago." It was the '03 game I believe.
joeing
Sun, Sep 13, 2009 : 3:01 p.m.
Well, we've had 110,000 cheering before. It's not like Michigan fans haven't had anything to cheer about yesterday. I remember the Purdue game a year back where Coach Carr actually asked the crowd, in his mid-week presser, to get loud to disrupt their offense. The House was LOUD that day, but it takes everyone screaming all the time to generate consistent noise given how open the stadium is (was). Noise begets noise. Michigan fans get just as excited as any others, but they don't sustain the noise when it doesn't seem to build on itself. In other stadiums a 30% vocal crowd generates so much noise that it gets the other 70% fired up. At Michigan Stadium you had to have 40 or 50% participation to get enough noise to get the rest of the crowd into it. A 20 or 30% "vocal minority" in The Big House just wasn't enough to feel like anything and get the rest of the crowd to take notice. In Madison, a 20% participation rate is deafening, and it gets the other 80% fired up, wanting to be part of it. Hopefully now, with the boxes, a 20% initial participation level won't just "fade into the ether" but will resonate, getting the rest of the fans screaming too.
tulsatom
Sun, Sep 13, 2009 : 1:32 p.m.
Coach Weis is a smart guy but he outsmarted himself by passing on 2nd and 3rd downs late in the 4th quarter instead of running the ball to burn more clock and make U-M burn timeouts. This allowed U-M to save two critical timeouts, which were instrumental in the final drive to win the game. Sometimes, being an offensive genius backfires on you.
Snaker
Sun, Sep 13, 2009 : 10:59 a.m.
Way to go COACH, hush the haters!
azwolverine
Sun, Sep 13, 2009 : 10:42 a.m.
Some of my friends and longtime Michigan game attendees told me it was the loudest they had EVER heard the stadium (of course when I spoke to them, I could barely hear them because their voices were shot from cheering!). Matt Millen also commented on it a few times during the game that it was so loud ND had to use hand signals to communicate because they couldn't hear. Awesome! It's about time our 110,000+ actually sounds like it. That will give us a home field advantage like never before.
Wooper
Sun, Sep 13, 2009 : 9:39 a.m.
It's much louder this year. ND had two delay of game calls and 3 or 4 time outs due to running out of time. I'm not sure if this was the noise, or the pressure of the situation.
Txmaizenblue
Sat, Sep 12, 2009 : 11:58 p.m.
Doesn't play calling always prove pivotal?
joeing
Sat, Sep 12, 2009 : 10:16 p.m.
So I haven't seen anything about the noise level from people who were at the game. It seemd loud on TV, like loud enough that ND actually had problems with the call at the line. Is it true? Are we finally a REALLY loud venue (when we need to be)?