Running game

Late in the season Denard's durability will be question. We need our RB corp to step up.

Also Stephen Hopkins is a liability. That fumble on the goal line was just inexcusable.

It was because notre dame's gameplan was to sell out to stop the run, until we opened it up with the passing game they had no problem playing with the safeties up. When we did start passing and they moved back it was to late to try and establish the running game. The personell situations did confuse me at the beginning though, it didn't make sense to me why they were handing off to hopkins from the shotgun and vincent smith from the I-form.

Well Fitz was out - and who knows how that factors into things. Given he seems to have won the job we were technically opperating with our #2 and beyond RB's.

We ran it very well last week, then very poorly this week when ND sold out to stop the run. There's still a very small sample size, I don't think we will really have a grip on how good this team is until at least the SDSU game, and maybe even the MSU game.

When Robinson runs he has an extra blocker, making that a little easier.  But for the most part it is just poor blocking by the O-line on RB plays.

I don't know why he was given so many runs. And plus Touissant wasn't in there.

Theory 1: Chicken or egg - which comes first. Do we need someone to establish themselves as a credible running threat or should they become credible as an option off of DR?

Theory 2: The defense is better - not great, but better, so why should the RBs be different. They are actually getting turnovers and coming up with huge stops. Still giving up a lot of yardage (vacated or not, and ND did get 500+ yards) but unlike the last few years, somehow they scrapped it out. Face it, the odds looked pretty dim heading into the 4th quarter. If we faced a less fancy ram it down our throat team, it might have been 35-0 or 35-7 at halftime.

So like the defense maybe we should be realistic about the RBs, they are afterall pretty much the same bunch we had last year - we have some good backs, but no one great. Smith and Shaw had their moments, but no one is able to complement DR as a threat. Borges and Hoke get a lot of credit in not calling his number more.

Prediction: against the weaker teams, the RBs will suddenly look great. Against the division and conference contenders, we'll see more of this.

For now I'm going to enjoy the magic of the night and forget all of the lucky moments which broke in our favor...thank you Brian Kelly for channelling Charlie Weiss and trying to win it by throwing the ball...thanks for great jump balls which mostly ended up in our favor...thanks for miraculously timed turn overs which helped kill drives for ND while yielding no points...Most of all I'm just going to appreciate these years with DR - he'll be enshired like Desmond Howard as a legend one day, and the two games against ND (2010 and 2011) will be on that highlight video. The raw emotion of those final few minutes was amazingly.

Sorry if already asked, but what exactly is wrong with Fitz? I was really hoping he was finally healthy...

a) Michigan's offensive line did not have a good night in the run game

b) Notre Dame was stacking the box and forcing Denard to pass, which was a good game plan

c) Toussaint was out and he's the best - or close to the best - of the bunch

d) Hopkins played too much and isn't very good.  He's slow, averaged 2.0 yards a pop, and fumbles too much (twice now in 42 carries)

If ND was selling out to stop the run, I'm curious why we didn't run any Denard play action to get some receivers wide open.

But seriously, yeah, we do.

I'm no football player or coach, but I really don't see why Hopkins was given so many carries.  He's not very fast or shifty, and for a big guy doesn't really get many yards after contact.  It always seems like it's just going straight up the middle behind a pile of linemen for 2 yards, completely ineffective.  Ball security is also an issue, obviously.  

I would really like to see Shaw get more carries.  While he may not be the best guy to consistently get 5 yards, he always seemed like the one who was the biggest threat to rip off a long run (Illinois, and OSU last year).  Also, he seems to be able to run through tackles better than Hopkins, despite being a smaller back.

@zone read left: IIRC, there was a qb oh noes somewhere in the 3rd quarter that got stifled by D line penetration.  I got really excited when it started...

Completely agree that there were just too many in the box to succeed except for DR with his extra blocker.  I do have to wonder if part of it is just that everyone else is being compared to DR and the fact that there just is no comparison. 

I hate to say it, but Hopkins needs to not play anymore this year unless Fitz, Shaw, and Vince Smith are all unavailable.

That said, I'm really disappointed that Fitz couldn't go. Has there been any information on his injury? Just when it seemed like he was finally totally healthy, he misses a key game due to some undisclosed knick up. I obviously don't know what's wrong with him, but it's very disappointing that he couldn't play. 

The 3 RBs had a combined 8 rushing attempts. Let me repeat that again. The 3 RBs (Hopkins,Smith,Shaw) had a combined 8 rushing attempts. How can can anyone even expect any results from the RBs out of 8 rushings attempts? Denard had 16 rushing attempts for 98yds (those are pretty damn good numbers). Cierre Wood alone had more carries than all 3 of Michigan's RBs and Denard combined.

I think it's too early to make any definitive statements. Toussaint looked good last week but then didn't play. Smith has done decently in his three carries on the season (he gained three yards on his one carry yesterday, but it was pretty much all him - there wasn't much of a hole). The position needs to sort itself out more.  Also, the OL needs to assert itself more.  ND's D-line pushed us around.

Can someone explain what happened with Shaw? He's the "other" first-string RB. But he had only a couple carries.

Fitz is the only decent back we have and he was out. Shaw just gets negative yards too often to be reliable and Hopkins is not good.  Hopkins is SLOW and has proven to have fumbling issues so I dont see much of a roll for him at all.

people draw too many conclusions off one game. A week ago everyone was celebrating that we finally have a running game because of two long runs, and now this week it's "we have no running game outside of Denard" because we did not have many run opportunities. Each game is going to show different results based on what defensives give. You put 8 guys in the box you're not going to run lights out on a good defense. ND did what was expected - took away the running game and made Denard beat them with his arm. Denard got lucky and won the battle.

From what i noticed we never really tried to even run the ball much.