Michigan Football Tidbits: Observations from the Iowa game

1) Woolfolk was the best player on the field for Michigan on Saturday. Although Iowa tried to throw some deep balls against Woolfolk, when he was in press coverage Iowa threw the ball to Warren’s side much more often.

2) The defensive line played its best game. Too bad we did not see this kind of intensity in the Michigan Stat game, but this was the first game where I have seen some vast improvement from the defense. Granted, there were some bad plays, like the now infamous 3rd and 24, but you can almost look to our safety play for all of the miscues on Saturday.

3) Teams run the ball much more effectively against Michigan when the opposing team runs to the right. That is where our “quick defensive end” usually lines up and teams are now game planning to run toward our quick defensive end side.

4) Will Campbell got some addition snaps and he had one impressive play where he pushed the opposing lineman deep into the backfield on a passing play that enabled Graham to get a sack, but for the most part Iowa handled him easily.

5) For someone who has questioned Ezeh’s performances this was his best, by far, this season.

6) I do not know if anybody else noticed, but Minor got over 2/3 of his yards when he ran out of the I-formation with Kevin Grady in at fullback. This team simply does not run wide very well, but really runs well between the tackles.

7) Some posters can verify I warned them about Boo Boo before it was announced he did not travel. In fact, there were a couple practices he was asked to leave and not so nicely. I am now putting him on my official watch list as one who may not be a future part of this program.

8) Okay I now turn to my beef on Tate (and I completely understand he will improve and is only a freshman). Part of the reason our wide receiver’s do not look like they are getting open is because Tate is simply putting his head down and running or improvising way too often and early.

Wide receivers, even if they do run the routes properly, are not (have not) going to get the ball thrown to them. Notice how on the first drive Tate caught the snap and then released the ball, the result was completions to Odoms and Koger. After that, I did not see a pass play that Tate did not scramble first unless you count the two passes the defensive end knocked down.

9) More troubling is when Tate does scramble our wide receivers just stand around. They do not move to open spaces and this discussion point and #8 above are the prime reasons our offense seems to have no rhythm.

10) Our screen game is horrible and I do not for sure know why our timing is so far off, but it is a critical part of our offense and it has been bad now for two years.

11) Prediction: Iowa will lose three Big 10 games this year. They will lose to Michigan State, Ohio State, and either Wisconsin or Minnesota.

12) Felt good for Dorrenstein. I know he is not a world-beater when it comes to being a great right tackle, but he played very well on Saturday, against a good opponent, and taking into consideration what the kid has gone through it was indeed nice to see him have a good game.

13) Here are a couple of younger kids to keep an eye on.

• Mike Jones: The kid is getting bigger all the time and I think he is going to grow into a middle linebacker by next year. I cannot see him staying at the spinner position.

• Lewan: Already penciling him in as a starter at one of the offensive tackle spots next year.

14) Penn State now becomes the biggest game in Coach Rod’s early tenure at Michigan.

15) This team has two very different issues.

• On Defense: It is a matter of youth, lack of depth, and even lack of talent (especially at safety), but there are signs of improvement, especially in the play of the front seven. The performance defending the run was quite impressive (Iowa had nine yards rushing at half).

• On Offense: The offense on the other hand has depth, talent, but is youthful at quarterback and still has an offensive line that struggles running spread running plays. This could cause issues throughout the remainder of the year. I personally do not see much progress on that side of the ball.

Final thoughts: Will Michigan improve in the near future? Of course, nothing improves a team faster than experience at quarterback. Until both quarterbacks learn and improve their ability in the passing game, Michigan will struggle with consistency and against decent defensive teams. The number of big plays, which was our strength in early games, will be few and far between until the above deficits are addressed.

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Written by MaizeMan

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