GBMWolverine: What Happened and What it Means

Posted at 8:00am — 9/13/2010

Notre Dame – Michigan Game Review

What Happened and What it Means

Wow, talk about a game where much can be written, yesterday’s outing was such an affair. It really was one for the ages and better than the more ballyhooed games of the day. And so, on goes the analysis and observations, which for a second week bear good final results but must be subjected to troubling shortcomings. A win is a win is indeed a nice saying, but the ostrich effect of the head in the sand ignoring serious concerns could be disastrous down the road.

The coaches will not be so generous as to give a pass at the film session today. But heading into next week, UM is 2-0, the same as last year and likely to run out to a 4-0 start, the same as last year. But this is a better Michigan team, one that beat a mentally and physically tough Notre Dame squad, albeit with a lift from a key Irish injury.

On the surface four obvious things pop out as paramount; First of all, Michigan finally caught a break being the beneficiary of an injury to an opposing player, Dayne Crist, who before his injury had led Notre Dame on a surgical touchdown bearing drive against the Wolverine defense on the Irish’s first possession. After that drive it appeared that only a team that scored in the upper 30’s on that particular Saturday afternoon could vanquish Notre Dame.

Second, without one Denard Robinson Michigan almost certainly would not have won, since the base ground game again yielded many plays that netted under four yards. Take Denard’s running out of the game stats and precious little remained in the ground total.

Third, the UM back five on defense got clobbered and committed football sins of near monumental proportions. Some of the mistakes were more of an experience and mental nature than physical, but the results were almost terminal. Good defenses would not allow the end of the first half drive, the 95-yard touchdown, or the end of the game near fiasco to occur. None of the above offensive drives were of Notre Dame’s doing; the points were scored, or almost scored, because of severe defensive or judgment shortcomings. The defenders not only need to get better, but must also, just as obviously, get smarter. Freshmen are freshmen, but still, some of the situations yesterday were primordially basic.

Finally, Denard Robinson’s arm was the weapon that enabled Michigan to make the final long drive that won the game. Without that nice slant to Roundtree, and other nice plays along the way, the gig may have been over and UM would have had to face the tortuous gauntlet of watching another kick go up from midrange to achieve overtime.

The preliminaries end thusly; Denard Robinson has improved light years since last year, and noticeably even since the spring. This is the quality Coach Rod is likely talking about when he stated on Saturday that Denard is going to get better. Notre Dame does not have a top-shelf secondary, but any secondary is vulnerable if the safeties must come up to better defend Denard. Notre Dame tried both methods yesterday, playing the safeties normal and crashing them on the run read. Most of the time Denard made the right decision; there were errors in his reads, but with an offense so in tune to microsecond decision-making he certainly did an admirable job.

The dialogue turns to things of an offensive nature, as in football not irritation. Notre Dame played many fronts and threw numerous tricks at Michigan’s offense. The most intriguing to me was a version of the old, but most esteemed, 4-4 defense, named by many coaches as Notre Dame. There is a similar 6-2 version also named Notre Dame. In this alignment the defense walked a safety up to the tight position and had really an 8 and ½ alignment in the box. This worried the author as the best defensive option to put up against Denard’s running. This defense of antiquity is very tough to run against but modern football has put it in the ash pile; simply run the corner off and get a receiver out to the flat underneath, or hit the two big seams between the corners and anyone left in the middle. Notre Dame did a nice job of mixing it up and UM did a nice job of finding something to counter, in short following the axiom of taking what was given. In this case what was given also applied to throwing more downfield, including, gasp, a straight fly route.

The backs did a decent job of blocking or getting to the flats for some important gains. The two passes to Shaw on the last drive set the table for Roundtree’s critical slant (or skinny post). Still, Michael Shaw goes down a little too easy but this also shows the interior line must get more push and control in zone blocking. Shaw and Smith are playing hard and contributing. A big, strong, fast running back, like Lattimore of South Carolina, could make this offense a scourge upon the land. The bottom line is this: take away Denard and the running game is not productive.

The wideouts are into it and should be commended. Koger had one drop, but in his defense Denard floated the ball instead of just tossing it with sufficient velocity and angle.

Roundtree continues to just be a player and he has lived up to his reputation of catching everything tough over the middle. Roundtree is versatile, smart, and dependable. He is in no way shape or form Randy Moss in his prime, but he is a winner, period, and a player that makes measurables less meaningful.

Odoms is just flat out tough, and his move to wideout is turning positive. He still gets clocked by defenders once in a while, but comes through more often than not.

T. Robinson and Grady can make this team better by continuing to contribute in supporting roles. Again, the receiver pie was spread out in an effective manner.

Martell Webb did some unappreciated dirty work yesterday when he was on the field.

Stonum continues to contribute, but in fairness, he now has a quarterback or coaching staff that at least will get him some deep outs. Look for future defenses to not give up the cushion he has enjoyed the first two weeks. Notre Dame did indeed have a curious mix of playing up then back on the wideouts, almost certainly to protect against the downside of some close to sellout blitzes. Read it and take what is given, and hope someone does not gamble and jump the route. Denard took a good long look at the cornerbacks retreat on the deep sideline and his arm strength in making that throw bodes well. Not everyone can make that throw across two hashes.

Collectively, the receivers made some of the best blocks seen for a while in springing Denard on long runs. Roundtree’s block on the big scamper was very noticeable.

The O line had some wins and some losses, a fact of life against big strong athletes. Schilling continues to be money in the bank; he is not Jake Long but he is good. One must suspect that everyone in the building knew Denard was going over Schilling’s hole on the game winner. There is work to do but this line can sustain blocks somewhat better than last year. Molk struggled some against a big nose tackle. Still every cotton pickin Maize and Blue fan knows how important David is to the Big Blue cause.

The kicking game was a big downer. Gibbons missed badly twice from midrange, likely more mental and pressure related than physical or technique related. Coach Rod (or others) now has a tough choice; bring him in and shower him with confidence, get him to practice, slow his thinking down, practice baby steps (like 30 yards and in until he makes 90%), or fire him now and replace with the next candidate. Gibbons “gooses” the ball with a short leg swing, a technique not preferred at all by the author. Ohio State is grumbling about five makes and one miss from its kicker. It is all in the emphasis and preparation regarding the success of the kicking game.

There are no worries here about the punting. Strong legged punters, like Hagerup, just love to launch the ball and frequently over-kick. His time at practice might be spent on becoming a coffin corner master. Soon his semi-misses will disappear, but every punter has an occasional dud.

The defense is as advertised and will so remain, and Notre Dame’s coaching staff did not need 3-D technology to ascertain the same. Every team will be aware of the Michigan defensive deficiencies; it will be a matter of what opposing entity extracts the most from its talent and scheme to exploit the back seven of Michigan.

The linebackers: On the first drive, Mouton and Kovacs frequently got schooled in the flat, and later on Kovacs was the target of isolation efforts straight down his pike. He gives what he has and will get up off the turf to fight another play and once in a while Kovacs will have one go his way.

On a third and short yesterday, one yard if memory serves correctly, Obi just stood there and did not make any attempt to fill the hole until both the blocker and runner were past the line of scrimmage. Again, he just over thinks the obvious and is too slow in reaction. No wonder Notre Dame chose his gap for a third and one.

Jonas Mouton again had his moments, both up and down. The announcer was kind enough to say that he thought Jonas was one of Michigan’s better defensive players; he did not say he was “A” better defensive player. Mouton still tackles high and does not wrap up, features that should not be present in a good senior linebacker. Linebackers win and lose battles and it appears Jonas is not going to give in one inch, and so this scenario will go on all year. Still, he can remedy some of his shortcomings and should post haste.

The line was shut down in the pass rush; it was almost nonexistent. What an advantage an offense has when a strong armed quarterback can sit for seven or eight seconds unmolested and then heave one to an open receiver, made open by safeties that either cannot believe the play is still going on or make the fatal mistake of getting lazy and moving up, instead of following the classic technique of staying five yards deeper than the receiver in prevent situations. Craig Roh had to go home with some of the Irish players, unless UM found a way to separate Roh’s body from some of the Irish blockers.

The corners and deep safety Cam Gordon did not communicate well or anticipate what was going to happen. Letting a receiver rub a safety enough to get him out of a deep out pattern really should not happen. The two Gordons have plenty of work to do, both in knowing coverage and executing coverage. The mistakes yesterday were almost fatal. Not only did Notre Dame attack the flanks but as predicted ran numerous seam combinations to great effect. Kyle Rudolph is a great player, but Michigan’s defensive backfield made him look much better than he actually is. A tight end running past a deep protecting safety is a bad sign, really bad.

The opinion here is that the coaching staff did a nice job of staying up with what Notre Dame was doing. Coach Robinson again threw everything he had at the opponent and trusted somewhat to luck since his charges failed to execute some basic principles of smart football. He will retain that dilemma until better defensive talent enters the program.

The offensive play calling had a couple of head-scratchers. In some critical situations, the offense let the Notre Dame safety and outside linebacker walk right up and into the called play at the last second. Catch them back and snap the ball. Also, Denard kept reverse pivoting on the inside read and then threw the ball into a group of Notre Dame defenders playing volleyball. If the defenders/blitzers cannot be blocked for a sufficient time, then hit the hot read without delay and forget the preliminaries.

The idea of the unbalanced line with a jumbo backfield for Denard to run a wildcat-like play is very promising. This scenario may be better on third and two or three than running the inside zone read. Put a little power into the game plan and line up now and then with two backs and isoblock. That is likely coming

And now the quarterback, one Denard Robinson, the talk of the town, the talk of the nation, even Cowtown. Denard makes an offensive coordinator look like a genius and makes a defensive coordinator glad his team only faces Michigan once per season.

Most of the following will provide a new meaning to the word obvious. He did make some misreads and some mistakes, big deal, if he gets better God help the opponent. Denard is now a passing threat in this offense, and will be as long as he can make a defense pay big at least once or twice per game for ignoring his potential to launch a pass. He is making very good choices, by and large, and has avoided the big mistake, although there were a couple of almost situations yesterday. That will happen every game. The offense still relies on him too much and an injury could greatly reduce Michigan’s ability to score. The next two weeks might see a semi-rest time, but not a vacation before the Big Ten season starts

It is the belief here within that Denard will not let his success, earned through hard work, go to his head. He is hungry and his appetite is far from satisfied.

The Notre Dame Network announcers did a very nice job, fair and positive to all involved. The game was enjoyable, most enjoyable. All of us will likely never again see a Michigan player top 500 yards in total offense against the Irish. And just a postscript, Notre Dame is a pretty good football team, capable of nine or more wins. Like Michigan, Notre Dame will have plenty of toss up games where the Irish must outplay the opposition to win. To some extent the Wolverines got a little lucky yesterday, it is time to plug the leaks and plan on taking advantage of opportunity.

What this victory means is that Michigan is 2-0. Three months ago 2-0, or 1-1, or 0-2, were all very plausible predictions. The best scenario emerged. The good start has occurred partially because of the superior athletic talent of one Denard Robinson, but also as a result of hard work and better mental toughness (derived from confidence more than anything) from the entire team.

Michigan is now the clear favorite in three more games, UMass, BG, and Illinois, a slight favorite for Indiana and Purdue, a toss up with Michigan State, and an underdog to Penn State, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio State. Penn State has some problems but still has strengths that will give Michigan trouble. The key to Penn State may be in the ability to mount a pass rush, one of Michigan’s areas of weakness.

Regardless, Michigan State remains the most important game on Michigan’s schedule, even though they all count as one.

Written by GBMWolverine Staff

Go Blue — Wear Maize!