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Posted on Sat, Sep 12, 2009 : 8:41 p.m.

Report card: Michigan football team earns high marks in win against Notre Dame

By Dave Birkett

Every Saturday, beat writer Dave Birkett will grade Michigan's performance on the football field. High marks are in order today.

Offense Tate Forcier is mature beyond his years at quarterback, and Brandon Minor (106 yards rushing) makes the running game complete. A few fits and starts early and Forcier’s late interception were the only negatives. Grade: A-minus

Defense As well as Michigan played in the second half, you can’t give up 490 yards of total offense and feel good about yourself. Notre Dame had a 100-yard rusher and two 100-yard receivers. Grade: B-minus

Special teams Darryl Stonum’s kick-return touchdown was the highlight, but usually-reliable Zoltan Mesko shanked a punt (18 yards) that led to a Notre Dame field goal and the Irish had a big third-quarter kick return they couldn’t take advantage of. Grade: B

Coaching Rich Rodriguez and his staff got the better of Charlie Weis. Michigan executed its two-minute offense to perfection, and Rodriguez made good use of his timeouts, spending one early to review a touchdown that was overturned and saving three late to stop the clock. Grade: A

Unsung hero Weis. The smartest man in the room was at it again, throwing twice in the final minutes when he had a chance to run out the clock - or at least make Michigan spend its timeouts.

Dave Birkett covers the University of Michigan football team for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidbirkett@annarbor.com

Comments

uminks

Sat, Sep 12, 2009 : 11:59 p.m.

I would give the offense an A-. OL B +, RB A-, WR B, QB A+ The defense was more of a C. DL = B, LB C+ and DB D. They definitely need to improve in the secondary before playing MSU and PSU. Special teams B Coaching B+/A- Weiss gets an A+ for helping us win by not running the clock down on his final drive!

Champswest

Sat, Sep 12, 2009 : 8:37 p.m.

I didn't think that a Freshman QB could do much better than an opening day 3 TD win. But, he follows it up with a 70% passing day, 2 more TDs (including the last second game winner), runs for a score, and, oh yea, punts the ball 42 yards. Let the Forcier be with you.

tomhagan

Sat, Sep 12, 2009 : 8:22 p.m.

Fair remarks Dave. Tates INT was a miscommunication with Matthews... not a badly thrown ball..that will get worked out. You are right about Meskos shank..that was bad and came at a bad time...the Kicking game overall (other than Tates pooch ironically) was not great today...RR coached a great game, as did GRob...he had a banged up and small defense to work with and they hung in there and made some plays...gritty performance. Unsung hero: Stevie Brown flew around all day and made plays

Kubrick66

Sat, Sep 12, 2009 : 8:11 p.m.

How sweet it is.

azwolverine

Sat, Sep 12, 2009 : 8:09 p.m.

Final Score: 38-34. Grade: A+