denard robinson

Also: water wet.

One Denard Xavier Robinson is not only a quarterback for the University of Michigan football team, but a scary-fast dude who runs track for the Wolverines as well. Today (seriously, less than an hour ago), Denard raced in the 60 meter dash against Ohio State WITH HIS SHOES UNTIED OMG. I'll let the video speak for itself:

He's the be-dreadlocked dude in the 4th lane, winning the race in a time of 6.81 seconds.

The meet was packed, and I'm sure much of the excitement was about Denard's performance this afternoon. Nearly every Michigan football coach and about half the team was in attendance, along with some football recruits, in addition to members of various other Michigan teams (shout out to women's basketball, who stood right near me). Paul also got some pics:

Sorry if some of them are blurry, he's just too fast for any shutter speed.

On Jared Odrick's odd Big Ten DPOY victory:

Dear Brian,

Conferences, be they high school or college, have stupid political bylaws that determine all-conference teams (i.e. conference champs get to name 3 players to 1st team, 2 players to second team).  The head scratchers like "Odrick: B11DPOTY" are usually negotiated settlements between coaches/SIDs (if you put my player up or vote for my player, i'll vote for yours) or actually written into the bylaws (i.e. your team is first in points against, you get to name B11DPOTY).  Normally, those types of things result in a clear shake out.  Sometimes when the margins are not obvious or the bylaws don't work out nice...the solutions are political (AKA stupid looking).

Go Blue,
Tyler Sellhorn

P.S. Is there hope for the defense to get better next year?  Do you think Lloyd realized how bad the defense was going to be?  and got out?

Odrick was just named first-team All America, too. Brandon Graham got jacked, not that there's any surprise in that.

As to the PS questions: yes, but not very good, probably yes he realized things weren't going to go swimmingly once he left, and no, that had nothing to do with his departure.

Brian

It seems as though most of the time Denard is in at quarterback, he is deployed in an otherwise empty backfield.  This means that he either passes (infrequently) or runs.  Any thoughts on why there is rarely a running back in the backfield with him. This means a read option is out the window.  You would think that with his speed that this might be an effective attack.  Is he having trouble making the reads in practice?

Faithful reader

Two possibilities: Denard can't make the reads, or Michigan thinks he'll be more effective with the field more spread out. I don't get it, personally: Rodriguez broke out the zone read with Pat White early in his career.

That lack of zone read, more than anything else, makes me think Robinson is eventually destined to move to a Percy Harvin-esque slash WR/RB role. He's not running a run-crazy version of the base offense, he's running a no-decision, extremely predictable high school offense. Is there any way he advances enough without the benefit of a redshirt year to pass up Forcier or even Gardner, who's plenty familiar with the zone read in high school?

I think the answer to Denard Robinson is to give him a QB package but start the transition in earnest this offseason. Next year it's Tate and you try to redshirt Gardner, using Robinson as an all-purpose player.

Brian,

Can we/should we take some comfort in looking at Oklahoma this year?  They have an entrenched, top-tier coach, who is indisputably good at coaching in a big time conference.  I haven’t looked at their roster, but I think its safe to assume they don’t have Michigan’s youth and under-scholarship issues.  They were number two preseason, and when their quarterback goes down and have to play a freshmen, they’re 7-5. 

(This email started under the premise that OU finished 6-6, which made the comparison better.  I just realized that they finished 7-5, and literally crushed almost all the opponents in victory, and were close in every loss.)

Still, is the comparison valid?  Take a national title contender, and put in a freshmen qb, and you are now a middling 7-5.  Michigan has only freshmen qbs and 10 other glaring problems and ends up 5-7.   Isn’t this actually par or slightly above?  This whole thing is a full year longer than everyone expected.  Last year was a black hole and this past season was year 1.

Nic Wetzler

Well… no. As the emailer noted, despite their crappy record Oklahoma is an entirely different level from Michigan this year. Their peripheral stats show a team that's snakebit. Michigan's show a team that's just bad. We don't need to hack down to complicated statistical measures to do so:

Oklahoma's nonconference schedule included Miami (That Miami) and BYU, a Baby Seal U—Matt Guiterrez alma mater Idaho State—and bad CUSA team Tulsa, so the overall schedule is probably about as challenging as Michigan's. And there is no comparison. Michigan is better at three things: net punting, rushing offense, and kickoff returns. They are vastly worse in all of the big categories.

This is the flipside of pointing to Georgia Tech and declaring that it's easy to show up and contend for a conference championship in year two. Record isn't everything. Michigan's peripherals this year were really, really terrible; they indicate a team that is going to have to put in yet more time rebuilding. Oklahoma's probably going to leap back to BCS quality next year.

Comparisons to other programs who have struggled through mediocre years or other coaches who have struggled through an opening two seasons as poor as that of Rodriguez don't strike me as relevant. Michigan is in the midst of a unique, wrenching transition from 40 years of one thing to something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. They started a walk-on quarterback. Three walk-ons played extensively on defense this year, one of them a freshman starter at safety. There are no meaningful comparisons; we just have to grit our teeth and hope it works out.

I agree with the timeline proposed by the emailer: Michigan is a full year behind schedule because of a combination of things. After the Utah game I said the program was under construction and would be finished in 2010; now that is fanciful. Obviously.

Personnel notes: Dorrestein actually started at right tackle and Huyge came in when Molk got hurt. Kelvin Grady got severely restricted playing time after the third-down drop early, so Roundtree got a lot of time and continued convincing quarterbacks to throw him the ball in situations where that's a terrible idea.

Other than that, not much to report.

In my copy of the game I replaced all of Michigan's drives with copies of the first one.

Dude, I bet we win that game.

Yeah, by lots. It's awesome.

Sweet. I bet this is a clever way to get me to address the vast dropoff from a slick 11-play touchdown drive to whatever the rest of the day was.

No, it is the literal truth. I do not wish to discuss the rest of the day at all.

Ah so.

What is your opinion of game one? Do you think it counts? I just heard Colin Cowherd go on a ten-minute rant about how he "doesn't want to hear" that game one of the World Series "doesn't mean anything."

Really?

Yes. Your opinion? I have to admit, Cowherd made a strong case that the first game of the World Series is not a crazy exhibition that has no effect on the outcome.

Um. David Molk's injury obviously had something to do with it. And then it was just a lot of Michigan incompetence. Subsequent drive ends:

• Kelvin Grady is wide open for first down, Forcier throws it a little low, Grady drops it.
• Penn State stuffs a run, nearly intercepts a bad pass, and gets pressure on Forcier.
• Ortmann decides not to block Josh Hull, who sacks Forcier. Protection bust on third and three.
• Koger drop followed by Robinson INT.
• Yakety sax safety.
• Koger drops seam.
• Forcier fumbles snap, spikes ball.
• Batted pass, inaccurate swing, three guys screw up in protection and get Forcier killed.
• Robinson fumble
• Terrible holding call, 12 yard QB draw, throw into double coverage.
• Brown fumble
• Drop, bad protection, throw into double coverage.

Penn State had a lot to do with all of this; teams do not exist in a vacuum and having guys covered and whatnot is a thing secondaries other than Michigan do from time to time. But, man: drop, drop, drop, fumble, fumble, fumble, vomit. This is a pattern that's been going on for a while now. There are some talent problems with the offense, but a lot of it is just playing poorly. Bad coaching, bad luck, young kids, you take your pick as to the reason. The ideas behind Michigan's offense still seem good; the execution is lacking.

I mean, all the pressure is on the Yankees, he said. He said the Phillies aren't afraid.

Yes, the bubble screen did make a triumphant return, albeit briefly. Having Odoms dinged up on the first drive didn't help matters, either. Rodriguez is clearly skeptical of Kelvin Grady's ability to catch the ball—with good reason—and the bubbles they attempted subsequent to the first one didn't do that well, with Roundtree getting overthrown on one. It was part of a day on which the quarterbacks were bad, but not as bad as you might think, but to discuss that I'll need some—

I find his ability to condescend while expressing opinions that are either moronic or obvious fascinating.

Charts.

(Hennechart legend; MA is "marginal", screen results are in parens.)

TATE FORCIER

DENARD ROBINSON

Robinson is throwing too many interceptions and fumbling too much to play consistently, except the other quarterback isn't doing that hot because he's also a freshman. Things should get better against Illinois and Purdue; Penn State has a bear of a defense and it's understandable Michigan's kid QBs would struggle.

Forcier would tag on some meaningless completions and an even more meaningless interception on Michigan's final drive, but garbage time doesn't get counted. This week's downfield success rate is 9 / 18 = 50%, which is bad. It's not nearly as bad as Forcier's final numbers, though, and there's a major reason why:

Obviously an ugly day, with three flat drops and three more passes that could have been catches (could have been critical first downs) not getting reeled in. Koger's great start came to a clunky halt with and 0/3 day, and no one really helped out except for the running backs. Forcier's day wasn't good, but it wasn't as bad as the numbers suggest.

Also, will someone throw Roundtree an easy ball, please? When he's not triple-covered by Deion Sanders, Charles Woodson, and Champ Bailey, kthx.

And the protection metric:

PROTECTION: 19/32, Ortmann –4, Moosman –3, Schilling –2, Dorrestein –2, Team –2.

Another extremely shaky performance from the offensive line. Molk re-injuring himself has something to do with it, but Huyge—the guy who came in for Molk—isn't anywhere on this list. Michigan's been severely restricted from a downfield passing game because the receivers aren't threats in and of themselves and the line can't pass block consistently enough to give them time to get open, or Forcier time to throw. I think they've been pretty decent in the run game; as pass defenders they're very poor.

A couple weeks ago he ranted about how baseball wouldn't put a little spiderweb on the bases for Spiderman 3, made fun of baseball for being old fashioned, lauded the NFL for participating in this thing where everyone wears pink stuff for breast cancer awareness, said that's why the NFL is so much more popular—it's forward thinking!—and never once mentioned that one act was blatantly commercial and the other was for charity.

Yeah… super.

SOMETHING IS TERRIBLE.

Many things to choose from on this day but tight ends and Denard Robinson stood out as the items that damaged Michigan's chances the most.

SOMETHING IS FANTASTIC.

Brandon Minor needs the ball more.

ILLINOIS annoying pause TERRIBLE AWFUL I THINK THAT'S TOTALLY FAIR?

Illinois has a terrible run defense so Michigan should be able to plow them over despite the Molk injury and the issues Michigan's had so far against high level defenses. Illinois is emphatically not a high-level defense. Penn State rushed for almost 340 yards against them. Michigan should be able to move the ball effectively by putting it in the hands of Minor and Brown, using the passing game as a sidelight to keep people honest.

As for the future, the turnovers have to stop. It's one thing for Robinson to throw an interception every four throws or whatever, but he can't fumble it, too. Both senior tailbacks have coughed up critical fumbles in the last two real games, and while I don't think turnovers are that predictable, they're not totally random. Turnovers cost Michigan the Iowa game and prevented the Penn State game from being competitive; the lurking danger is that Michigan will end the Illinois or Purdue game seriously in the hole in TO margin and therefore on the scoreboard. Just Lloydball it when you can the rest of the year, I guess.

Rich Rod

• Liked opportunity to play in front of 106k, and the fans supported the team, despite lack of an exciting opponent.
• Liked that a bunch of older guys were able to get their first real playing time. Even ST starters didn't play in the second half. Guys are happy because their teammates got to play. So many close games prevents quality reps for the depth. A lot of fun to let the scout team guys get real playing time.
• Carlos should be cleared up by Monday. Molk might be back for the PSU game, and he should be able to practice this week. No new injuries happened today.
• Tate practiced well during the week. They wanted to give him some game reps, but the first couple series went well, and they didn't need him. They knew tuesday that Tate would be able to play. If he was needed all game, he could have (but they planned on playing Denard). Wanted to get Denard some passing reps. Sheridan will be a great coach some day. Cone knows the system, great to get him some reps.
• Planned to give Shaw and Smith the most carries. Wanted to give Kevin a few as well. How importat was it to get the backups some carries? You need at least 3-4 tailbacks, because they often play 2 at once, etc. It's critical to get the lower guys some reps. VS and MS physical for their size. Cox is on the scout team, but he got a chance to prove himself today.
• Beginning of the year, this game would be used for evaluating. Middle of the year, it's a rest week, and time to give reps to depth players.
• James Rogers moved to CB this week. Asked a couple weeks ago if he could help out on defense.
• Wanted to run the offense, but didn't want to show anything new or throw the ball too much.
• The coaches are "very mindful of the guys we plan on redshirting" Justin Turner will redhsirt.
• Guys are ready for PSU. They were talking about the Lions as soon as they started going back up the tunnel.
• RR knows the team is where he wants it when the 2s are almost as good as the 1s.
• JT Floyd was out with what might be the flu. Cissoko still suspended - day-to-day.

Kevin and Kelvin Grady

• Never talked to each other about scoring TDs in the same game. "These are the type of opportunities and moments you work for" - Kelvin.
• Both brothers are competitors, never worried about scoring touchdowns together.
• Kevin loves running the ball, it was god to get the opportunity to do it again. Kelvin's TD - he didn't do much, coaches just made the right call against the coverage.
• Team had no problem with intensity - You shouldn't need the opponent be a big one in order to get up for a game in Michigan Stadium.
• Kelvin still loves his hoops teammates, and they support him in football.

Vincent Smith

• Wasn't expecting a huge workload, but was prepared to make the most of it.
• Never worried about whether or not he needed to redshirt. He wanted to do whatever the team needed.
• Smith wasn't aware of all the things he was doing, just worried about running the ball.
• Freshman year is for getting the experience down, in the future he can worry about moving up the depth chart.

Brandon Graham

• Hasn't scored since his junior yr of high school. Brandon Smith scooped the ball to Graham a bit.
• Every game is taken personally. Today was to try to get everybody out there "Get everybody to live their dream of playing in the Big House" Ohene Opong-owusu was a captain today. He was hustling, etc.
• With 2 sacks today, and 3 good weeks, the number is starting to climb up. He's really come on lately.
• Try to keep guys focused in the locker room this week. Trying not to miss assignments this game. About last year's PSU game: "Last year was last year, this year we fight for 60 minutes."
• The Big Ten is up for grabs. The goal is 10-2 "It can happen." You never know what can happen in the big 10. Never lose hope, the goal is a big 10 championship.
• Vincent Smith is tiny and strong. "You ain't seen him with his shirt off. He's cut up."

Denard Robinson

• "Just going out and having fun with my team. that's all this was."
• Felt great to throw 2 TDs. Safety came down on the Grady TD pass. Knew what was coming. Sometimes the pass to the wide open guy is the hardest one. Don't want to overthtrow or underthrow. Had to throw it to webb because he was so open when denard got his head around.
• Bounce-back from 2 losses is a big deal. The team can re-focus, put past games in the past. It's not hard to do, because your teammates tell you it's ok to make a mistake. You just need to get back on track. Against Iowa, Denard was calm. The interception had nothing to do with his nerves.
• Don't try to do too much. Improving as a passer every day. Coach and teammates helping him out. Reading the defense is what Denard is working on now. Always room for improvement. Better than he was when he first got here.
• More comfortable to get in rhythm, rather than one series at a time? Feels comfortable any time he goes into the game. Both he and Tate want to play, but they don't worry about who's on the field. They just want the team to win. Even Cone and Kennedy got reps today.
• Vincent Smith's running style is fun. He ran loose, and hard to tackle.
• On his fumble, a guy ripped it from behind just as he was going to secure with his second hand.

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Madness! Madness-type object that's not at midnight goes down tonight at 9PM in Crisler, with doors at 8 and a "barbecue" from 7-8 on the east lawn, which sounds like a good idea except it's mid-October. Dylan has a primer for you. In celebration of the basketball team's achievements and in an attempt to make money, allow me to present MGoBlog's sweet basketball shirt:

It is, as per usual, by Six Zero. I know what you're thinking, guy who took Spanish in high school, but you're wrong: "sofa" is irregular and takes a masculine article. I looked it up three times.

While we're on the basketball team, Big Ten Geeks has a two-part preview of the season that focuses on tempo-free stats. The first part shows what you already know: Beilein's second year was a huge leap forward from his first. They ask this question;

Michigan already made a huge jump from 112th to 50th in Pomeroy's ratings - is it reasonable to expect another big jump into top 20 territory?

Note that leap goes only to 50th, not the 40th you'd expect from Michigan's tournament seeding or the 32nd-ish you'd expect from their advancement to the second round. I expect the team to improve this year, but I'll be marking improvement from 50th.

The Geeks then attempt to answer their question with an array of tempo-free charts comparing Michigan's first two season under Beilein to West Virginia's first three. It appears the offense can expect another step forward in eFG%, but is probably maxing out in 3FGA/FGA and minimizing TOs as much as humanly possible.

Note: a reader gave me the idea for this shirt but a search of the ever-expanding, world-encompassing inbox does not turn up who it is. If it's you, email me and claim your reward.

Bombshell! This is what passes for the biggest story in the Free Press's world:

That's right: "Mom popped hood so boy could get gun, kill" and Taylor Swift (!!!) get second billing to the Free Press FOIAing the University for grade records—the one thing actually covered by the FERPA law that athletic departments abuse willy-nilly—multiple times and Rodriguez saying this:

I have mentioned publicly several times that the football team last year achieved the highest average GPA ever, and I'd like to set the record straight on that statement. Last fall, in order to boost academic performance, I asked the Academic Success Program for the highest-ever team GPA and challenged the players to beat it. The ASP doesn't track team GPAs, so they provided me with an estimate based on their experience dealing with individual performance. They did not make it clear that the number was just an estimate and not an exact calculation

The bastard. In a TLA, LOL. This is getting has long been comical.

Wolverines, for real. They're remaking Red Dawn, for some reason, but at least they're doing it with proper respect for wolverines:

For former Michigan players Sean Griffin, Charles Stewart, Darnell Hood and Brandent Englemon, playing high school football players -- for a team named the Wolverines, no less -- in the remake of the 1980's movie "Red Dawn," came, in some respects, almost naturally.

"It's just football," said Griffin, a 2008 U-M graduate and former long snapper.

It's not just football, it's a titanic struggle against communism in a dystopic alternate reality, Sean. Let's get with the program.

I once went to the world's worst staging of any play—they sang "Silent Night" at the end—just because Jamar Adams and Jake Long and Chad Henne were vaguely in it, so I guess I have to go see the remake of Red Dawn now. The dangerous precedents I set.

Happy fun time forever hurray! Rick Leach finally followed through on his promise to bring down the thunder on someone for not being all in for Rich Rodriguez. As you've no doubt already found out because I've been studiously avoiding the topic to the point where Doctor Saturday himself pinged me to inform me about this event, it was Lloyd Freakin' Carr:

This morning former U-M QB Rick Leach dialed up WTKA’s Michigan Insider with Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub to sound off about the report that Rodriguez backed off the claim that the team hit the highest GPA in team history.  Leach painted it as another attempt by the media to discredit Rodriguez, paraphrasing: “turning a good story into a bad one.” 

But then Leach took aim at former coach Lloyd Carr, asking folks to investigate where and with whom Carr sat at the Iowa game. … Per Leach, this act is effectively waving a “middle finger” at U-M. 

I find this wonderful in all ways and love everything forever. Like everyone else who reads a lot of Michigan message boards, I've heard dark stories about Carr and Eastern regent James Stapleton—a guy who thought Brian Ellerbe's firing was racist!—and what some brilliant, anonymous person called the "shadow government" in Ypsilanti, all of the vague beyond the point of usefulness and extremely irritating. I've never found anyone worth citing, even if I maybe kind of believe certain aspects of it. Which I think I do. But I haven't heard anything worth publishing. When and if I do, I'll publish it.

Bracelet note. If you clicked the button on the top right to donate to Phil Brabbs and get yourself a cancer kicker bracelet, there is another step you have to execute: email cancerkicker@gmail.com to tell them how many you'd like. Details here. Video blog from Brabbs and wife here.

A question about quarterbacks that is not that question. NKOTB Burgeoning Wolverine Star brings the still frames and the analysis to ask "hey, was that last INT Junior Hemingway's fault?"

You can see Hemingway two steps beyond his guy, loping down field. He pulls up, thus turning a potential deep completion into an easy interception. This guy's answer: no, it wasn't Hemingway's fault. If he'd kept going on his route he might have had a chance to break the play up but watch the  video; watch how long the safety is just waiting for the ball to come directly to him:

Receiver or no, that is not a good throw. Especially with Odoms hand-wavingly wide open underneath.

Inside vs outside zone. I've struggled to recognize the differences between inside and outside zone plays for a long time now, but Chris Brown (Not That Chris Brown) has illuminated it for me, and for you:

On outside zone plays, the "covered" offensive linemen (those with a defender lined up directly in front of them) will take a little bit more of a lateral first step and try to "reach" the defender -- that is, get their body in position to seal the defender from chasing the ball outside. The running back aims for a point outside the tight end, though he can cut it upfield wherever a seam appears.

Michigan hardly ever gets outside the tight end, or outside the tackle, because defensive ends are coached to get upfield and force the play back inside of them. When they do get outside the tackle it's usually a big gainer. A large number of Michigan's outside zone (or "stretch") plays end up going between the tackle and the center; the guard to that side of the field releases downfield to get a block on a linebacker.

Anyway, this causes people to start flowing fast to the sideline, at which point it's time to hit them with a counter. The simplest zone counter is to just execute the same play with a slightly different goal:

Once the defense begins flowing too fast to the sideline, Wilson will come back to the inside zone. The rules are the same -- covered and uncovered -- except this is more of a drive block as the aiming points are inside. The play often results in a cutback if the defense is flowing fast for the outside zone, but the difference between the outside zone is one of technique, not assignment.

So instead of trying to get around your guy with a reach block and sealing him, you just shove him down the line and have Minor cut behind you.

Here's an a-ha I just had. You know how Michigan was blocking the backside end much of the day? All those must have been inside zone plays. These days unblocked DEs tend to crash down on the backside, turning cutback lanes into minimal gains. Blocking that guy gives your moosebot tailback the opportunity to cut back on the inside zone without getting an unblocked DE in his face.

Etc.: Guess what Pryor's running now? The spread 'n' shred. Also this counter draw play OSU is running is something Michigan should put in the Robinson playbook. You can sign up to support Michigan Stadium's World Cup bid. There is a student protest today at City Hall to fight for State Street's right to party. The Beastie Boys would be proud. Correction: the Beastie Boys 20 years ago would be proud. The current Beastie Boys are very disappointed you're not thinking about Tibet.

Personnel notes: No switching on the OL in this game, with Huyge-Dorrestein the right half of the line for the entire game. I don't think I saw Webb except in rare 2TE situations, and Kelvin Grady had a very limited role. The three-man rotation at the two outside receiver spots seems about even. Roy Roundtree came in on some four WR sets.

Complication notes: attempting a "zone read" metric that gets a +1 when a QB makes a right read and a –1 when he doesn't. Handoffs will usually get zero here. May not be accurate because some plays aren't reads, but better than nothing.

 Answer the question one more time. And don't fake like you don't know what I'm talking about.

If I'm going to do that I'll need a—

Chart?

Chart.

(Hennechart legend; MA is "marginal", screen results are in parens.)

TATE FORCIER

DENARD ROBINSON

This will be no surprise, but that was Forcier's worst game of his career. The only thing that came close was the who-cares Eastern game and that didn't approach this one in terms of damage. The downfield success rate* in this game was 8 / 16 = 50%, which is not good and is way short of the 70% he picked up against Michigan State. Also, the chart doesn't quite get how disastrous a couple of the throws were: one screen IN was a fumble and one of the BRs was the game-opening "anything you can do, Stanzi, I can do better" interception.

Forcier's zone read metric was +1, –3 = –2.

Robinson, on the other hand, was doing awesome until he ignored a hand-wavingly wide open Martavious Odoms on the last play of the game. I have seen Odoms ignored on more hand-wavingly wide open routes than anyone to date; someone get that midget a neon helmet.

*((DO + CA) / All Throws Not MA or PR)

So… the question?

Aw, hell, I don't want to talk about it anymore. If you were just going on the Iowa game it made total sense. If you incorporated Forcier's previous late game magic, it still didn't. The charts basically say what everyone already new: Forcier played very poorly. That was never in question.

So… more charts?

More charts.

The receivers didn't have a lot to do:

I may have been generous in filing a couple of those 2s; they were borderline and you'd like to see Odoms and Hemingway catch those, though you can understand why they might not have. The most interesting things on the chart to me: no attempts to Mathews, who also may have lost his punt return job after the muff, and Koger's picked up 6/8 tough or moderate catches so far this year. He needs the ball more, I think.

As for the protection:

PROTECTION METRIC: 25/41, Team –6, Huyge –2, Moosman –1, Dorrestein –1, Ortmann –3, Schilling –3.

That is not good, and is responsible for a lot of Forcier's running around. He was willing to sit in the pocket when he got one, but that wasn't often. And I'd say 60-70% of the negatives—all of the "team" negs and probably half of the player-specific ones—came on this:

This stunt never failed to get pressure and never opened anything up for Michigan; very frustrating they couldn't adjust to it even after Iowa had run it 6, 7, 8 times. Michigan did get a couple of good runs out of it, but in pass protection they got killed.

The run game bounced back from the State game, didn't it?

Absolutely. Watch Schilling and Moosman:

With Minor in Michigan did that a lot, doubling the backside DT and blasting some RAGE right up the middle of the field. That, too, was a new wrinkle in the run game that didn't show up against Michigan State.

And here watch Moosman seal the defensive tackle by himself:

That basically never happened against MSU, and I don't think it's got much to do with the quality of Iowa's DL versus Michigan State's. The offensive line bounced back from the ugly day against State, further suggesting that Dantonio has put a lot of effort into defending the spread 'n' shred and Michigan must go into next year's game prepared to break any and all previous tendencies.

Here's where we get back to the stuff about the Iowa defense: I wonder if Norm Parker will be this two-deep and passive against Michigan in future years. This game reminded me a lot of Corwin Brown's Notre Dame defenses, which absolutely loved leaving two safeties back on every play and got gashed by Michigan every year until he was deposed by Tenuta. It worked for Iowa in this game, though just barely, because of a slew of unforced errors and that damn stunt above. Given the Iowa D's rep, I bet they'll sit back even when Michigan has the spread 'n' shred up at full thresh, and in years like that they'll get blown apart. Watching the film, I was struck by a lack of adaptation on Iowa's part. They're fundamentally good but very boring, and I think that will play to Michigan's advantage going forward.

Why couldn't Michigan break this sort of stuff out against Michigan State?

The edge pitch is pretty obvious: don't want to debut a new play that can result in a fumble if your dinged up quarterback doesn't throw it in the right spot. The subtle variations in the run game, though, could have been inserted and I'm not sure why they weren't. Michigan blocked the backside defensive end quite a bit in this game, and that opened up a lot of cutback runs a crashing DE would have wiped out. I also think it convinced that backside DE that Michigan was not running a zone read and caused him to give up quarterback contain, because it certainly didn't look like there was anyone on Forcier much of the day. Not that it mattered, because Michigan was creasing the line time and again.

The only thing I can think of is that they were still trying to figure out the basics with their reconfigured offensive line and weren't confident enough in those, so they spent their time trying to get that down instead of putting in bells and whistles. Even that explanation is not very convincing. Maybe they just screwed up.

Heroes?

I'd say Minor but for the fumble. How about the interior OL, which had a very good day against the Hawkeye front? Also, Koger and Odoms are productive and look like they'll continue being productive.

Goats?

Forcier and the Mysterious Reason Michigan Couldn't Block That Stunt.

What does it mean for Delaware Penn State and beyond?

The debacle against Michigan State appears to be the lesser of two evils: MSU has just turned in anomalously good rush defense performances two straight years. The run game is not a smoke-and-mirrors fraud. Almost 200 yards against Iowa is a good output, especially when the long run of the evening was twelve yards*. If Michigan could have put together a decent passing game or not, you know, been –4 in turnover margin, we'd be spending this week rhapsodizing about the offensive line and MINOR RAGE.

Minor's ankle might not be totally healthy, but it's good enough for government work.

In the passing game: Odoms has taken hold of the slot receiver position and it looks like Mathews is getting a little marginalized. It's hard to tell given the output there. Forcier had a bad game but remains the #1 guy, without question. Robinson should get a lot of time against Delaware State, where we can all see him wing some bad passes and fret about it.

*(General theory here is that long runs are sort of random and very distorting.)